Builders A History And Study Of Masonry

F^resented by Mr. D. C. Daruvala in
memory of his late brother, Mr, S C. Fozdar
Cheif Agent, Central Bank of India, Delhi,

THE BUILDERS

THE BUILDERS

A STORY AND STUDY
OF MASONRY

BY

JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, Litt.D.

GRAND LODGE OF IOWA

fVhen I was a Ktngand a Maion^
A vtaster f raved and skilled
/cleared meacroundforapalace
Such as a Ktag should hutld
/decreed and cut down to ttKf levels^
Presenify under the sill, ^

/ came on the wreck of a Mace
Such as a Kins had hudU
— Kipung

A

CEDAR RAPIDS IOWA
THE TORCH PRESS
NINETEEN SIXTEEN

COTTRXGHT. 1!U4
Br Joseph Fout Newtoit

Pirsi Printing y December^ 19l4^ 7000 Copies
Second “ “ 1915, 5300 “

Third " " 1916,10009 “

THE TOUCH PRESS
CEDAR RAPIDR
tOWA

To

The Memory of

THEODORE SUTTON PARVIN

Pounder of the Library of the Grand Lodge
of Iowa, with Reverence and Gratitude; to

LOUIS BLOCK

Past Grand Master of Masons in Iowa, dear Friend
and Fellow-worker, who initiated and inspired
this study, with Love and Goodwill ; and
to the

YOUNG MASONS

Our Hope and Pride, for whom
this book was written
With

Fraternal Greeting

THE ANTEROOM

Fourteen years ago the writer of this volume en-
tered the temple of Freemasonry, and that date
stands out in memory as one of the most significant
days in his life. There was a little spread on the
night of his raising, and, as is the custom, tlie can-
didate was asked to give his impressions of the Or-
der. Among other things, he made request to know
if there was any little hook which would tell a young
man the things he would most like to know about
Masonry — what it was, whence it came, what it
teaches, and what it is trying to do in the world?
No one knew of such a book at that time, nor has
any been found to meet a need which many must
have felt before and since. By an odd coincidence,
it has fallen to the lot of the author to write the little
book for which he made request fourteen years ago.

This bit of reminiscence explains the purpose of
the present volume, and every book must be judged
by its spirit and purpose, not less than by its style
and contents. Written as a commission from the
Grand Lodge of Iowa, and approved by that Grand
body, a copy of this book is to be presented to every

viii TH^ BUILDERS

man upon whom the degree of Master Mason is con-
ferred within this Grand Jurisdiction. Naturally
this intention has determined the method and ar-
rangement of the book, as well as the matter it con-
tains; its aim being to tell a young man entering
the order the antecedents of Masonry, its develop-
ment, its philosophy, its mission, and its ideal. Keep-
ing this purpose always in mind, the effort has been
to prepare a brief, simple, and vivid account of the
origin, growth, and teaching of the Order, so writ-
ten as to provoke a deeper interest in and a more
earnest study of its story and its service to mankind.

No work of this kind has been undertaken, so far
as is known, by any Grand Lodge in this country or
abroad — at least, not since the old Pocket Com-
panion, and other such works in the earlier times;
and this is the more strange from the fact that the
need of it is so obvious, and its possibilities so fruit-
ful and important. Every one who has looked into
the vast literature of Masonry must often have felt’
the need of a concise, compact, yet comprehensive
survey to clear the path and light the way. Especial-
ly must those feel such a need who are not accus-
tomed to traverse long and involved periods of his-
tory, and more especially those who have neither the
time nor the opportunity to sift ponderous volumes
to find out the facts. Much of our literature — in-

THE ANTEROOM

IX

deed, by far the larger part of it — was written be-
fore the methods of scientific study had arrived, and
while it fascinates, it does not convince those who
are used to the more critical habits of research.
Consequently, without knowing it, some of our most
earnest Masonic writers have made the Order a tar-
get for ridicule by their extravagant claims as to its
antiquity. They did not make it clear in what sense
it is ancient, and not a little satire has been aimed at
Masons for their gullibility in accepting as true the
wildest and most absurd legends. Besides, no his-
tory of Masonry has been written in recent years,
and some important material has come to light in the
world of historical and archaeological scholarship,
making not a little that has hitherto been obscure
more clear ; and there is need that this new knowl-
edge be related to what was already known. While
modern research aims at accuracy, too often its re-
sults are dry pages of fact, devoid of literary beauty
and spiritual appeal — a skeleton without the warm
robe of flesh and blood. Striving for accuracy, the
writer has sought to avoid making a dusty chronicle
of facts and figures, which few would have the heart
to follow, with what success the reader must decide.

Such a book is not easy to write, and for two rea-
sons: it is the history of a secret Order, much of
whose lore is not to be written, and it covers a be.

THE BUILDERS

X

wildering stretch of time, asking that the contents
of innumerable volumes — many of them huge, dis-
jointed, and difficult to digest — be compact within
a small space. Nevertheless, if it has required a
prodigious labor, it is assuredly worth while in be-
half of the young men who throng our temple gates,
as well as for those who are to come after us. Every
line of this book has been written in the conviction
that the real history of Masonry is great enough,
and its simple teaching grand enough, without the
embellishment of legend, much less of occultism. It
proceeds from first to last upon the assurance that
all that we need to do is to remove the scaffolding
from the historic temple of Masonry and let it stand
out in the sunlight, where all men can see its beauty
and S3mimetry, and that it will command the respect
of the most critical and searching intellects, as well
as the homage of all who love mankind. By this
faith the long study has been guided ; in this confi-
dence it has been completed.

To this end the sources of Masonic scholarship,
stored in the library of the Grand Lodge of Iowa,
have been explored, and the highest authorities have
been cited wherever there is uncertainty — copious
references serving not only to substantiate the state-
ments made, but also, it is hoped, to guide the reader
into further and more detailed research. Also, in

THE ANTEROOM

XI

respect of issues still open to debate and about which
differences of opinion obtain, both sides have been
given a hearing, so far as space would allow, that
the student may weigh and decide the question for
himself. Like all Masonic students of recent times,
the writer is richly indebted to the great Research
Lodges of England — especially to the Quatuor
Coronati Lodge, No. 2076 — without whose pro-
ceedings this study would have been much harder to
write, if indeed it could have been written at all.
Such men as Gould, Hughan, Speth, Crawley,
Thorp, to name but a few — not forgetting Pike,
Parvin, Mackey, Fort, and others in this country — *
deserve the perpetual gratitude of the fraternity.
If, at times, in seeking lo escape from mere legend,
some of them seemed to go too far toward another
extreme — forgetting that there is much in Ma-
sonry that cannot be traced by name and date — it
was but natural in their effort in behalf of authentic
history and accurate scholarship. Alas, most of
those named belong now to a time that is gone and
to the people who are no longer with us here, but
they are recalled by an humble student who would
pay them the honor belonging to gpreat men and
great Masons.

This book is divided into three parts, as every-
thing Masonic should be: Prophecy, History, and

xii THE BUIEDERS

Interpretation. The first part has to do with the
hints and foregleams of Masonry in the early his-
tory, tradition, mythology, and symbolism of the
race — finding its foundations in the nature and
need of man, and showing how the stones wrought
out by time and struggle were brought from afar to
the making of Masonry as we know it. The second
part is a story of the order of builders through the
centuries, from the building of the Temple of Sol-
omon to the organization of the mother Grand Lodge
of England, and the spread of the Order all over the
civilized world. The third part is a statement and
exposition of the faith of Masonry, its philosophy,
its religious meaning, its genius, and its ministry to
the individual, and through the individual to society
and the state. Such is a bare outline of the purpose,
method, plan, and spirit of the work, and if Uiese be
kept in mind it is believed that it will tell its story
and confide its message.

When a man thinks of our mortal lot — its great-
ness and its pathos, how much has been wrought out
in the past, and how binding is our obligation to pre-
serve and enrich the inheritance of humanity —
there comes over him a strange warming of the
heart toward all his fellow workers ; and especially
toward the young, to whom we must soon entrust all
that we hold sacred. All through these pages the

PREFACE

xiii

wish has been to make the young Mason feel in what
a great and benign tradition he stands, that he may
the more earnestly strive to be a Mason not merely
in form, but in faith, in spirit, and still more, in
character; and so help to realize somewhat of the
beauty we all have dreamed — lifting into the light
the latent powers and unguessed possibilities of this
the greatest order of men upon the earth. Everyone
can do a little, and if each does his part faithfully
the sum of our labors will be very great, and we
shall leave the world fairer than we fotuid it, richer
in faith, gentler in justice, wiser in pity — for we
pass this way but once, pilgrims seeking a country,
even a City that hath foundations.

J. F. N.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, September 7, 1914.

table oe contents

Th:® Ant:^-Room vii

Part I — PROPHi^cy

CHAPTi^R I. TH:e Foundations . . 5

Chapti^r II. Th^ Working Tooi^s . 19

Chapter III. The Drama oe Faith . 39

Chapter IV. The Secret Doctrine . 57

Chapter V. The Coeeegia ... 73

Part II — History

Chapter I. Free-Masons ... 97

Chapter II. Feeeowcraets . . 127

Chapter HI. Accepted Masons . . 153

Chapter IV. Grand Lodge oe Engeand 173
Chapter V. Universal Masonry . 201

Part III — Interpretation
Chapter I. What Is Masonry . . 239

Chapter II. The Masonic Philosophy 259
Chapter III. The Spirit oe Masonry 283

Bibliography 301

Index 306

Part I— Prophecy

THE FOUNDATIONS

By Symbols is man glided and commanded,
made happy, made wretched. He everywhere
ands himself encompassed with Symbols, reco^-
nized as such or not recognized: the Universe is
but one vast Symbol of God; nay, if thou wilt
have it, what is man himself but a Symbol of God;
is not all that he does symbolical; a revelation to
Sense of the mystic God-given force that is in
him; a Gospel of Preedom, which he, the Messiah
of Nature, preaches, as he can, by word and act^
Not a Hut he builds but is the visible embodiment
of a Thought; but bears visible record of invisible
things; but is, in the transcendental sense, sym-
bolical as well as real.

— Thomas Carw^, Sartor Resartus

CHAPTER I

The Foundations

T WO arts have altered the face of the earth and
given shape to the life and thought of man,
Agriculture and Architecture. Of the two, it would
be hard to know which has been the more intimately
interwoven with the inner life of humanity; for man
is not only a planter and a builder, but a mystic and
a thinker. For such a being, especially in primitive
times, any work was something more than itself ; it
was a truth found out. In becoming useful it at-
tained some form, enshrining at once a thought and
a mystery. Our present study has to do with the
second of these arts, which has been called the ma-
trix of civilization.

When we inquire into origins and seek the initial
force which carried art forward, we find two funda-
mental factors — physical necessity and spiritual
aspiration. Of course, the first great impulse of all
architecture was need, honest response to the de-
mand for shelter ; but this demand included a Home
for the Soul, not less than a roof over the head.

6

THE BUIEDERS

Even in this response to primary need there was
something spiritual which carried it beyond provi-
sion for the body; as the men of Egypt, for instance,
wanted an indestructible resting-place, and so built
the pyramids. As Capart says, prehistoric art
shows that this utilitarian purpose was in almost
every case blended with a religious, or at least a
magical, purpose.^ The spiritual instinct, in seeking
to recreate types and to set up more sympathetic
relations with the universe, led to imitation, to ideas
of proportion, to the passion for beauty, and to the
effort after perfection.

Man has been always a builder, and nowhere has
he shown himself more significantly than in the
buildings he has erected. When we stand before
them — whether it be a mud hut, the house of a
clifif-dweller stuck like the nest of a swallow on the
side of a canon, a Pyramid, a Parthenon, or a Pan-
theon — we seem to read into his soul. The build-
er may have gone, perhaps ages before, but here he
has left something of himself, his hopes, his fears,
his ideas, his dreams. Even in the remote recesses
of the Andes, amidst the riot of nature, and where
man is now a mere savage, we come upon the re-
mains of vast, vanished civilizations, where art and
science and religion reached unknown heights.

1 Primitive Art in Egypt.

THKli^OUNDATlONS

7

Wherever humanity has lived and wrought, we find
the crumbling ruins o£ towers, temples, and tombs,
monuments of its industry and its aspiration. Also,
whatever else man may have been — cruel, tyran-
nous, vindictive — his buildings always have refer-
ence to religion. They bespeak a vivid sense of the
Unseen and his awareness of his relation to it. Of
a truth, the story of the Tower of Babel is more
than a m3rth. Man has ever been trying to build
to heaven, embodying his prayer and his dream in
brick and stone.

For there are two sets of realities — material and
spiritual — but they are so interwoven that all prac-
tical laws are exponents of moral laws. Such is the
thesis which Ruskin expounds with so much insight
and eloquence in his Seven Lamps of Architecture,
in which he argues that the laws of architecture are
moral laws, as applicable to the building of charac-
ter as to the construction of cathedrals. He finds
those laws to be Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty,
Fife, Memory, and, as the crowning grace of all,
that principle to which Polity owes its stabilify, lyif e
its happiness. Faith 'its acceptance, and Creation its
continuance — Obedience. He holds that there is
no such thing as liberty, and never can be. The
stars have it not; the earth has it not; the sea has it
not. Man fancies that he has freedom, but if he

8

THE BUILDERS

would use the word Loyalty instead of Liberty, he
would be nearer the truth, since it is by obedience
to the laws of life and truth and beauty that he at-
tains to what he calls liberty.

Throughout that brilliant essay, Ruskin shows
how the violation of moral laws spoils the beauty of
architecture, mars its usefulness, and makes it un-
stable. He points out, with all the variations of
emphasis, illustration, and appeal, that beauty is
what is imitated from natural forms, consciously or
unconsciously, and that what is not so derived, but
depends for its dignity upon arrangement received
from the human mind, expresses, while it reveals,
the quality of the mind, whether it be noble or ig-
noble. Thus :

All building, therefore, shows man either as gathering
or governing ; and the secrets of his success are his know-
ing what to gather, and how to rule. These are the two
great intellectual Lamps of Architecture ; the one consist-
ing in a just and humble veneration of the works of God
upon earth, and the other in an understanding of the do-
minion over those works which has been vested in man.^

What our great prophet of art thus elaborated so
eloquently, the early men forefelt by instinct, dimly
it may be, but not less truly. If architecture was
born of need it soon showed its magic quality, and

* Chapter iii, aphorism 2.

THE FOUNDATIONS

9

all true building touched depths of feeling and
opened gates of wonder. No doubt the men who
first balanced one stone over two others must have
looked with astonishment at the work of their
hands, and have worshiped the stones they had set
up. This element of mystical wonder and awe last-
ed long through the ages, and is still felt when work
is done in the old way by keeping close to nature,
necessity, and faith. From the first, ideas of sacred-
ness, of sacrifice, of ritual rightness, of magic stabil-
ity, of likeness to the universe, of perfection of form
and proportion glowed in the heart of the builder,
and glided his arm. Wren, philosopher as he was,
decided that the delight of man in setting up col-
umns was acquired through worshiping in the
groves of the forest; and modern research has come
to much the same view, for Sir Arthur Evans shows
that in the first European age columns were gods.
All over Europe the early morning of architecture
was spent in the worship of great stones.^

If we go to old Egypt, where the art of building
seems first to have gathered power, and where its
remains are best preserved, we may read the ideas
of the earliest artists. Long before the dynastic
period a strong people inhabited the land who de-
veloped many arts which they handed on to the
^Architecture, by lyethaby, chap. i.

10

THE BUILDERS

pyramid-builders. Although only semi-naked sav-
ages using flint instruments in a style much like the
bushmen, they were the root, so to speak, of a won-
derful artistic stock. Of the Egyptians Herodotus
said, "They gather the fruits of the earth with less
labor than any other people.” With agriculture
and settled life came trade and stored-up energy
which might essay to improve on caves and pits and
other rude dwellings. By the Nile, perhaps, man
first aimed to overpass the routine of the barest
need, and obey his soul. There he wrought out
beautiful vases of fine marble, and invented square
building.

At any rate, the earliest known structure actually
discovered, a prehistoric tomb found in the sands at
Hieraconpolis, is already right-angled. As Lctlia-
by reminds us, modern people take squareness very
much for granted as being a self-evident form, but
the discovery of the square was a great step in
geometry.^ It opened a new era in the story of the
builders. Early inventions must have seemed like
revelations, as indeed they were; and it is not
strange that skilled craftsmen were looked upon as
magicians. If man knows as much as he does, the
discovery of the Square was a great event to the
primitive mystics of the Nile. Very early it became

^ Architecii^re, by I^etbaby, chap. ii.

THE FOUNDATIONS

II

an emblem of truth, justice, and righteousness, and
so it remains to this day though uncountable ages
have passed. Simple, familiar, eloq^uent, it brings
from afar a sense of the wonder of the dawn, and
it still teaches a lesson which we find it hard to
learn. So also the cube, the compasses, and the
keystone, each a great advance for those to whom
architecture was indeed “building touched with emo-
tion,” as showing that its laws are the laws of the
Eternal.,

Maspero tells us that the temples of Egypt, even
from earliest times, were built in the image of the
earth as the builders had imagined it.^ For them
the earth was a sort of flat slab more long than
wide, and the sky was a ceiling or vault supported
by four great pillars. The pavement represented
the earth ; the four angles stood for the pillars ; the
ceiling, more often flat, though sometimes curved,
corresponded to the sky. From the pavement grew
vegetation, and water plants emerged from the
water; while the ceiling, painted dark blue, was
strewn with stars of five points. Sometimes, the
sun and moon were seen floating on the heavenly
ocean escorted by the constellations, and the months
and days. There was a far withdrawn holy place,
small and obscure, approached through a succession

^Dawn of Cmhsation*

12

THE BUILDERS

of courts and columned halls, all so arranged on a
central axis as to point to the sunrise. Before the
outer gates were obelisks and avenues of statues.
Such were the shrines of the old solar religion, so
oriented that on one day in the year the beams of
the rising sun, or of some bright star that hailed his
coming, should stream down the nave and illumine
the altar.^

Clearly, one ideal of the early builders was that
of sacrifice, as seen in their use of the finest mate-
rials; and another was accuracy of workmanship.
Indeed, not a little of the earliest work displayed an
astonishing technical ability, and such work must
point to some underlying idea which the workers
sought to realize. Above all things they sought
permanence. In later inscriptions relating to build-
ings, phrases like these occur frequently : “it is sucli
as the heavens in all its quarters;” “firm as the
heavens.” Evidently the basic idea was that, as
the heavens were stable, not to be moved, so a build-
ing put into proper relation with the universe would
acquire magical stability. It is recorded that when
Ikhnaton founded his new city, four boundary
stones were accurately placed, that so it might be
exactly square, and thus endure forever. Eternity
was the ideal aimed at, everything else being sacri-
ficed for that aspiration.

iDoow of Asironomyi Norman I«ockyer.

THE FOUNDATIONS

13

How well they realized their dream is shown us
in the Pyramids, of all monuments of mankind the
oldest, the most technically perfect, the largest, and
the most mysterious. Ages come and go, empires
rise and fall, philosophies flourish and fail, and man
seeks him out many inventions, but they stand silent
under the bright Eg3T)tian night, as fascinating as
they are baffling. An obelisk is simply a pyramid,
albeit the base has become a shaft, holding aloft the
oldest emblems of solar faith — a Triangle mounted
on a Square. When and why this figure became
holy no one knows, save as we may conjecture that
it was one of those sacred stones which gained its
sanctity in times far back of all recollection and tra-
dition, like the Ka’aba at Mecca. Whether it be an
imitation of the triangle of zodiacal light, seen at
certain times in the eastern sky at sunrise and sun-
set, or a feat of masonry used as a S3mibol of
Heaven, as the Square was an emblem of Earth, no
one may affirm.’^ In the Pyramid Texts the Sun-
god, when he created all the other gods, is shown
sitting on the apex of the sky in the form of a Phoe-

^Churchward, in his Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man
(chap. 3cv), holds that the pyramid was typical of heaven, Shu,
standing on seven steps, having lifted the sky from the earth in
the form of a triangle; and that at each point stood one of the
gods, Sut and Shu at the base, the apex being the Foie Star where
Horus of the Horizon had his throne. This is, in so far, true; but
the pyramid emblem was older than Osiris, Isis, and Horus, and
runs back into an obscurity beyond knowledge.

H

THE BUILDERS

nix — that Supreme God to whom two architects,
Suti and Hor, wrote so noble a hymn o{ praise,^

White with the worship of ages, ineffably beau-
tiful and pathetic, is the old light-religion of human-
ity — a sublime nature-mysticism in which Light
was love and life, and Darkness evil and death.
For the early man light was the mother of beauty,
the unveiler of color, the elusive and radiant mys-
tery of the world, and his speech about it was rev-
erent and grateful. At the gates of the morning
he stood with uplifted hands, and the sun sinking in
the desert at eventide made him wistful in prayer,
half fear and half hope, lest the beauty return no
more. His religion, when he emerged from the
night of animalism, was a worship of the Light —
his temple hung with stars, his altar a glowing
flame, his ritual a woven hymn of night and day.
No poet of our day, not even Shelley, has written
lovelier l3nrics in praise of the Light than those
hymns of Ikhnaton in the morning of the world.*
Memories of this religion of the dawn linger with

1 Religion and Thought in Bgypt, by iBreasted, lecture ix.

^Ikhnaton, indeed, was a grand, solitary, shining figure, *'the
first idealist in history/’ and a poetic thinker in whom the religion
of l^pt attained its highest reach. Dr. Breasted puts his lyrics
alongside the poems of Wordsworth and the great passage of
Ruskin in Modem Paint ers^ as celebrating the divinity of Light
(Religion and Thought in Bgyptf lecture ix)« Despite the re-
venge of his enemies, he stands out as a lonely, heroic, prophetic
soul — “the first individual in time/*

THE EOUNDATIONS

15

us today in the faith that follows the Day-Star from
on high, and the Sun of Righteousness — One who
is the Eight of the World in life, and the Eamp of
Poor Souls in the night of death.

Here, then, are the real foundations of Masonry,
both material and moral : in the deep need and as-
piration of man, and his creative impulse; in his
instinctive Faith, his quest of the Ideal, and his love
of the Eight. Underneath all his building lay the
feeling, prophetic of his last and highest thought,
that the earthly house of his life should be in right
relation with its heavenly prototype, the world-
temple — imitating on earth the house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens. If he erected a
square temple, it was an image of the earth; if he
built a pyramid, it was a picture of a beauty shown
him in the sky; as, later, his cathedral was modelled
after the mountain, and its dim and lofty arch a
memory of the forest vista — its altar a fireside of
the soul, its spire a prayer in stone. And as he
wrought his faith and dream into reality, it was but
natural that the tools of the builder should become
emblems of the thoughts of the thinker. Not only
his tools, but, as we shall see, the very stones with
which he worked became sacred symbols — the tem-
ple itself a vision of that House of Doctrine, that
Home of the Soul, which, though unseen, he is
building in the midst of the years.

THE WORKING TOOES

It began to shape itself to my intellectual vision
into something more imposing and majestic^ sol-
emnly mysterious and grand » It seemed to me
like the Pyramids in their loneliness, in whose
yet undiscovered chambers may be hidden, for the
enlightenment of coming generations, the sacred
books of the Bgyptums, so long lost to the world]
like the Sphynx half buried in the desert
In its symbolism, which and its spirit of broth-
erhood are its essence. Freemasonry is more
ancient than any of the world* s living religions.
It has the symbols and doctrines which, older than
himself, Zarathrustra inculcated] and it seemed
to me a spectacle sublime, yet pitiful — the ancient
Faith of OUT ancestors holding out to the world
its symbols once so eloquent, and mutely and in
vain asking for an interpreter.

And so I came at last to see that the true great-
ness and majesty of Freemasonry consist in its
proprietorship of these and its other symbols]
and that its symbolism is its soul,

— PiKt, Better to Gould

CHAPTER II
The Working Tools

N ever were truer words than those of Goethe
in the last lines of Faust, and they echo one
of the oldest instincts of humanity: “All things
transitory but as symbols are sent.” Erom the be-
ginning man has divined that the things open to his
senses are more than mere facts, having other and
hidden meanings. The whole world was close to
him as an infinite parable, a mystical and prophetic
scroll the lexicon of which he set himself to find.
Both he and his world were so made as to convey
a sense of doubleness, of high truth hinted in hum-
ble, nearby things. No smallest thing but had its
skyey aspect which, by his winged and quick-sight-
ed fancy, he sought to surprise and gfrasp.

Let us acknowledge that man was born a poet, his
mind a chamber of imagery, his world a gallery of
art. Despite his utmost efforts, he can in nowise
strip his thought of the flowers and fruits that cling
to it, withered though they often are. As a fact,
he has ever been a citizen of two worlds, using the

20

the: BUII.DERS

scenery of the visible to make vivid the realities of
the world Unseen. What wonder, then, that trees
grew in his fancy, flowers bloomed in his faith, and
the victory of spring over winter gave him hope of
life after death, while the march of the sun and the
great stars invited him to “thoughts that wander
through eternity." Symbol was his native tongue,
his first form of speech — as, indeed, it is his last —
whereby he was able to say what else he could not
have uttered. Such is the fact, and even the lan-
guage in which we state it is “a dictionary of faded
metaphors," the fossil poetry of ages ago.

I

That picturesque and variegated maze of the
early symbolism of the race we cannot study in de-
tail, tempting as it is. Indeed, so luxuriant was
that old picture-language that we may easily miss
our way and get lost in the labyrinth, unless we
keep to the right path.^ Eirst of all, throughout

^ There ate many books in this field, but two may be named:
The Lost Language of SytiiboHsfnt by Bayley, and the Signs and
Symbols of Primordial ilfan, by Churchward, each in its own way
remarkable. The first aspites to be for this field what Frazer’s
Golden Bough is for religious anthropology, and its dictum is:
*^eauty is Truth; Truth Beauty/* The thesis of the second is that
Masonry is founded upon Egyptian eschatology, which may be
true; but unfortunately the book is too polemical. Both books par
take of the poetry, if not the confusion, of the subject; but not for

THE WORKING TOOES

21

this study of prophecy let us keep ever in mind a
very simple and obvious fact, albeit not less won-
derful because obvious. Socrates made the discov-
ery — perhaps the greatest ever made — that hu-
man nature is universal. By his searching ques-
tions he found out that when men think round a
problem, and think deeply, they disclose a common
nature and a common system of truth. So there
dawned upon him, from this fact, the truth of the
kinship of mankind and the unity of mind. His in-
sight is confirmed many times over, whether we
study the earliest gropings of the human mind or
set the teachings of the sages side by side. Always
we find, after comparison, that the final conclusions
of the wisest minds as to the meaning of life and
the world are harmonious, if not identical,

Here is the clue to the striking resemblances be-
tween the faiths and philosophies of widely sepa-
rated peoples, and it makes them intelligible while
adding to their picturesqueness and philosophic in-
terest. By the same token, we begin to understand
Avhy the same signs, symbols, and emblems were used
by all peoples to express their earliest aspiration and

a world of dust would oue clip their wings of fancy and suggestion.
Indeed, their union of scholarship and poetry is unique. Wheq the
pains of erudition fail to track a fact to its lair, they do not scruple
to use the divining rod; and the result often passes out of the
realm of pedestrian chronicle into the world of winged literature.

22

THE BUILDERS

thought. We need not infer that one people
learned them from another, or that there existed a
mystic, universal order which had them in keeping.
They simply betray the unity of the human mind,
and show how and why, at the same stage of cul-
ture, races far removed from each other came to
the same conclusions and used much the same sym-
bols to body forth their thought. Illustrations are
innumerable, of which a few may be named as ex-
amples of this unity both of idea and of emblem,
and also as confirming the insight of the great
Greek that, however shallow minds may differ, in
the end all seekers after truth follow a common
path, comrades in one great quest.

An example in point, as ancient as it is eloquent,
is the idea of the trinity and its emblem, the tri-
angle. What the human thought of God is de-
pends on what power of the mind or aspect of life
man uses as a lens through which to look into the
mystery of things. Conceived of as the will of the
world, God is one, and we have the monotheism of
Moses. Seen through instinct and the kaleidoscope
of the senses, God is multiple, and the result is poly-
theism and its gods without number. For the rea-
son, God is a dualism made up of matter and mind,
as in the faith of Zoroaster and many other cults.
But when the social life of man becomes the prism

THE WORKING TOOTS

23

of faith, God is a trinity of Father, Mother, Child.
Almost as old as human thought, we find the idea of
the trinity and its triangle emblem ever3rwhcre —
Siva, Vishnu, and Brahma in India corresponding
to Osiris, Isis, and Horus in Egypt. No doubt this
idea underlay the old pyramid emblem, at each cor-
ner of which stood one of the gods. No mission-
ary carried this profoimd truth over the earth. It
grew out of a natural and universal human experi-
ence, and is explained by the fact of the unity of
the human mind and its vision of God through the
family.

Other emblems take us back into an antiquity so
remote that we seem to be walking in the shadow of
prehistoric time. Of these, the mysterious Swas-
tika is perhaps the oldest, as it is certainly the most
widely distributed over the earth. As much a tal-
isman as a symbol, it has been found on Chaldean
bricks, among the ruins of the city of Troy, in
Egypt, on vases of ancient Cyprus, on Hittite re-
mains and the pottery of the Etruscans, in the cave
temples of India, on Roman altars and Runic mon-
uments in Britain, in Thibet, China, and Korea, in
Mexico, Peru, and among the prehistoric burial-
grounds of North America. There have been
many interpretations of it. Perhaps the meaning
most usually assigned to it is that of the Sanskrit

24

THE BUIEDERS

word having in its roots an intimation of the benef-
icence of life, to be and well. As such, it is a sign
indicating “that the maze of life may bewilder, but
a path of light runs through it: If is well is the
name of the path, and the key to life eternal is in
the strange labyrinth for those whom God lead-
eth,” ^ Others hold it to have been an emblem of
the Pole Star whose stability in the sky, and the pro-
cession of the Ursa Major around it, so impressed
the ancient world. Men saw the sun journeying
across the heavens every day in a slightly different
track, then standing still, as it were, at the solstice,
and then returning on its way back. They saw the
moon changing not only its orbit, but its size and
shape and time of appearing. Only the Pole Star
remained fixed and stable, and it became, not unnat-
urally, a light of assurance and the footstool of the
Most High.* Whatever its meaning, the Swastika
shows us the efforts of the early man to read the
riddle of things, and his intuition of a love at the
heart of life.

Akin to the Swastika, if not an evolution from it,
was the Cross, made forever holy by the highest

1 The J^ord in the Pattern, Mrs. G F. Watts,

^ The Swastika, Thomas Carr. See essay by the same wnter in
which he shows that the Swastika is the symbol of the Supreme
Architect of the Universe among Operative Masons today {The
Lodge* of Reseaich, No. 2429, Transactions, 1911-12).

the: working toots

25

heroism of Love. When man climbed up out of the
primeval night, with his face to heaven upturned,
he had a cross in his hand._ Where he got it, why
he held it, and what he meant by it, no one can con-
jecture much less affirm.^ Itself a paradox, its arms
pointing to the four quarters of the earth, it is
found in almost every part of the world carved on
coins, altars, and tombs, and furnishing a design for
temple architecture in Mexico and Peru, in the pa-
godas of India, not less than in the churches of
Christ. Ages before our era, even from the remote
time of the cliff-dweller, the Cross seems to have
been a symbol of life, though for what reason no
one knows. More often it was an emblem of eternal
life, especially when inclosed within a Circle which
ends not, nor begins — the t3q)e of Eternity. Hence
the Ank Cross or Crux Ansata of Egypt, scepter of
the Lord of the Dead that never die. There is less
mystery about the Circle, which was an image of
the disk of the Sun and a natural symbol of com-
pleteness, of eternity. With a point within the cen-
ter it became, as naturally, the emblem of the Eye
of the World — that All-seeing eye of the eternal
Watcher of the human scene.

Square, triangle, cross, circle — oldest symbols
of humanity, all of them eloquent, each of them

* Signs and Symbols, Churchward, chap. xvii.

26

THE BUILDERS

pointing beyond itself, as s3mibols always do, while
giving form to the invisible truth which they invoke
and sedf to embody. They are beautiful if we have
eyes to see, serving not merely as chance figures of
fancy, but as forms of reality as it revealed itself to
the mind of man. Sometimes we find them united,
the Square within the Circle, and within that the
Triangle, and at the center the Cross. Earliest of
emblems, they show us hints and foregleams of the
highest faith and philosophy, betraying not only the
unity of the human mind but its kinship with the
Eternal — the fact which lies at the root of every
religion, and is the basis of each. Upon this Faith
man builded, finding a rock beneath, refusing to
think of Death as the gigantic coffin-lid of a dull
and mindless universe descending upon him at last.

II

From this brief outlook upon a wide field, we
may pass to a more specific and detailed study of
the early prophecies of Masonry in the art of the
builder. Always the S3mibolic must follow the ac-
tual, if it is to have reference and meaning, and the
real is ever the basis of the ideal. By nature an
Idealist, and living in a world of radiant mystery, it
was inevitable that man should attach moral and
spiritual meanings to the tools, laws, and materials

THK WORKING TOOLS

27

of building. Even so, in almost every land and in
the remotest ages we find great and beautiful truth
hovering about the builder and clinging to his tools.^
Whether there were organized orders of builders in
the early times no one can tell, though there may
have been. No matter; man mixed thought and
worship with his work, and as he cut his altar stones
and fitted them together he thought out a faith by
which to live.

Not unnaturally, in times when the earth was
thought to be a Square the Cube had emblematical
meanings it could hardly have for us. From earliest
ages it was a venerated symbol, and the oblong cube
signified immensity of space from the base of earth
to the zenith of the heavens. It was a sacred em-
blem of the Lydian Kubele, known to the Romans in
after ages as Ceres or Cybele — hence, as some

1 Here again the literature is voluminous, but not entirely satis-
factory. A most interestingr book is Signs and S^boU of PrU
fnordial Jlfon, by Churchward, in that it surveys the symbolism of
the race always with reference to its Masonic su^estion. Vivid
and popular is Symbols and Legends of Freemasonry ^ by Finlayson,
but he often strains facts in order to stretch them over wide gaps
of time. Dr. Mackey's Symbolism of Freemasonry^ though writ-
ten more than sixty years ago, remains a classic of the order. Un-
fortunately the lectures of Albert Pike on Symbolism are not ac-
cessible to the general reader, for they are rich mines of insight
and scholarship, albeit betraying his partisanship of the Indo-Aryan
race. Many minor books might be named, but we need a work
brought up to date and written in the light of recent research.

28

THE BUILDERS

aver, the derivation of the word "cube.” At first
rough stones were most sacred, and an altar of
hewn stones was forbidden.^ With the advent of
the cut cube, the temple became known as the House
of the Hammer — its altar, always in the center, be-
ing in the form of a cube and regarded as "an in-
dex or emblem of Truth, ever true to itself.” ® In-
deed, the cube, as Plutarch points out in his essay
On the Cessation of Oracles, "is palpably the proper
emblem of rest, on account of the security and firm-
ness of the superficies.” He further tells us that the
pyramid is an image of the triangular flame ascend-
ing from a square altar; and since no one knows, his
guess is as good as any. At any rate. Mercury,
Apollo, Neptune, and Hercules were worshiped un-
der the form of a square stone, while a large black
stone was the emblem of Buddha among the Hin-
doos, of Manah Theus-Ceres in Arabia, and of Odin
in Scandinavia. Everyone knows of the Stone of
Memnon in Egypt, which was said to spealc at sun-
rise — as, in truth, all stones spoke to man in the
sunrise of time.*

More eloquent, if possible, was the Pillar uplifted,
like the pillars of the gods upholding the heavens.
Whatever may have been the origin of pillars, and

I-Exod. 20-25.

^Antigutiies of Cornwall, Borlase.

^IfOst Language of Symbolism, Bayley, chap, xviii; also in
the Bible, Dent. 32:18, II Sam. 22 3, 32, Fsa. 28;1, Matt. 16:18, I
Cor. 10 4

THE WORKING TOOLS

29

there is more tlian one theory, Evans has shown
that they were everywhere worshiped as gods.^
Indeed, the gods themselves were pillars of Light
and Power, as in Egypt Horns and Sut were the
twin-builders and supporters of heaven; and Bac-
chus among the Thebans. At the entrance of the
temple of Amenta, at the door of the house of Ptah
— as, later, in the porch of the temple of Solo-
mon — stood two pillars. Still further back, in the
old solar myths, at the gateway of eternity stood
two pillars — Strength and Wisdom. In India, and
among the Mayas and Incas, there were three pil-
lars at the portals of the earthly and skyey temple
— ‘ Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty. When man set
up a pillar, he became a fellow-worker with Him
whom the old sages of China used to call "the first
Builder." Also, pillars were set up to mark the holy
places of vision and Divine deliverance, as when
Jacob erected a pillar at Bethel, Joshua at Gilgal,
and Samuel at Mizpeh and Shen. Always they were
symbols of stability, of what the Egyptians describ-
ed as "the place of establishing forever," — em-
blems of the faith "that the pillars of the earth are
the Lord’s, and He hath set the world upon them.” *

Long before our era we find the working tools of
the Mason used as emblems of the very truths which
they teach today. In the oldest classic of China,

J- Tree and Pillar Cult, Sir Arthur Evans.

2 1 Sara, 2:8, Psa. 75:8, Job 26:7, Rev. 3:U

30

THE BUIIvDERS

The Book of History, dating back to the twentieth
century before Christ, we read the instruction : “Ye
officers of the Government, apply the compasses.”
Even if we begin where The Book of History ends,
we find many such allusions more than seven hun-
dred years before the Christian era. Eor example,
in the famous canonical work, called The Great
Teaming, which has been referred to the fifth cen-
tury B. C., we read, that a man should abstain from
doing unto others what he would not they should
do to him; “and this,” the writer adds, “is called
the principle of acting on the square.” So also Con-
fucius and his great follower, Mencius. In the writ-
ings of Mencius it is taught that men should apply
the square and compasses morally to their lives, and
the level and the marking line besides, if they would
walk in the straight and even paths of wisdom, and
keep themselves within the bounds of honor and vir-
tue.^ In the sixth book of his philosophy we find
these words :

A Master Mason, in teaching apprentices, makes use
of the compasses and the square. Ye who are engaged
in the pursuit of wisdom must also make use of the com-
pass and square.^

There are even evidences, in the earliest historic

^Freemasonry in China, Giles. Also Could, His. Masonry, vol.
i, chap. i. »

* Chinese Classics, by Legge, i, 219-45.

. THE WORKING TOOLS

31

records of China, of the existence of a system of
faith expressed in allegoric form, and illustrated by
the symbols of building. The secrets of this faith
seem to have been orally transmitted, the leaders
alone pretending to have full knowledge of them.
Oddly enough, it seems to have gathered about a
symbblical temple put up in the desert, that the va-
rious officers of the faith were distinguished by sym-
bolic jewels, and that at its rites they wore leather
aprons.'^ From such records as we have it is not
possible to say whether the builders themselves used
their tools as emblems, or whether it was the think-
ers who first used them to teach moral truths. In
any case, they were understood; and the point here
is that, thus early, the tools of the builder were
teachers of wise and good and beautiful truth. In-
deed, we need not go outside the Bible to find both
the materials and working tools of the Mason so
employed : *

For every house is builded by some man ; but the build-
er of all things is God . . . whose house we are.*

^ Essay by Chaloner Alabaster, An Quaiuor Coromtorum, vol ii,
121-24. It IS not too much to say that the Transactions of this
Eodge of Research are the richest storehouse of Masonic lore in
the world.

*Matt. 16:18, Eph. 2:20-22, I Cor. 2 9-17 Woman is the house
and wall of man, without whose bounding and redeeming influence
he would be dissipated and lost (Song of Solomon 8 10). So also
by the mystics XThe Perfect Way).

« Heb 3 4.

32

THE BUIEDERS

Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a tried stone, a
precious corner-stone, a sure foundation.^

The stone which the builders rejected is become the
head of the corner.®

Ye also, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual
house.®

When he established the heavens I was there, when he
set the compass upon the face of the deep, when he marked
out the foundations of the earth ; then was I by him as a
master workman.*

The Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with
a plumbline in his hand. And the Lord said unto me,
Amos, what seest thou ? And I said, A plumbline. Then
said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst
of my people Israel : I will not again pass by them any
more.®

Ye shall offer the holy oblation foursquare, with the
possession of the city,®

And the city lietli foursquare, and the length is as large
as the breadth.*^

Him that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple
of my God ; and I will write upon him my new name.®

For we know that when our earthly house of this tab-
ernacle is dissolved, we have a building of God, an house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.®
iJsa. 28:16.

®Psa. 118.22, Matt 21:42.

8 1 Pet. 2.5,

* Prov. 8:27-30, Revised Version.

® Amos 7 :7, 8.

8 Eak. 48 20.

^Rev. 21:16.

8 Rev, 3:12
8 II Cor. 5:1.

THE WORKING TOOLS

33

If further proof were needed, it has been pre-
served for us in the imperishable stones of Egypt.^
The famous obelisk, known as Cleopatra’s Needle,
now in Central Park, New York, the gift to our na-
tion from Ismail, Khedive of Egypt in 1878, is a
mute but eloquent witness of the antiquity of the
simple symbols of the Mason. Originally it stood
as one of the forest of obelisks surrounding the
great temple of the Sumgod at Heliopolis, so long
a seat of Egyptian learning and religion, dating
back, it is thought, to the fifteenth century before
Christ. It was removed to Alexandria and re-erect-
ed by a Roman architect and engineer named Pon-
tius, B. C, 22. When it was taken down in 1879 to
be brought to America, all the emblems of the build-
ers were found in the foundation. The rough Cube
and the polished Cube in pure white limestone, the
Square cut in syenite, an iron Trowel, a lead Plum-
met, the arc of a Circle, the serpent-symbols of Wis-
dom, a stone Trestle-board, a stone bearing the
Master’s Mark, and a hieroglyphic word meaning
Temple — all so placed and preserved as to show,
beyond doubt, that they had high symbolic meaning.

^Hgyptiait Obelisks, H. H. Gorringe. The obelisk in Central
Park, the expenses for removing which were paid by W. H. Van-
derbilt, was examined by the Grand Lodge of New York, and its
emblems pronounced to be unmistakably Masonic. This book gives
full account of all obelisks brought to Europe from Egypt, their
measurements, inscriptions, and transportation.

34

THE BUILDERS

Whether they were in the original foundation, or
were placed there when the obelisk was removed,
no one can tell. Nevertheless, they were there, con-
crete witnesses of the fact that the builders worked
in the light of a mystical faith, of which they were
emblems.

Much has been written of buildings, their origin,
age, and architecture, but of the builders hardly a
word — so quickly is the worker forgotten, save as
he lives in his work. Though we have no records
other than these emblems, it is an obvious inference
that there were orders of builders even in those
early ages, to whom these symbols were sacred; and
this inference is the more plausible when we remem-
ber the importance of the builder both to religion
and the state. What though the builders have fallen
into dust, to which all things mortal decline, they
still hold out their symbols for us to read, speaking
their thoughts in a language easy to understand.
Across the piled-up debris of ages they whisper the
old familiar truths, and it will be a part of this study
to trace those symbols through the centuries, show-
ing that they have always had the same high mean-
ings. They bear witness not only to the xmity of
the human mind, but to the existence of a common
system of truth veiled in allegory and taught in sym-
bols. As such, they are prophecies of Masonry as

THE WORKING TOOLS

35

we know it, whose genius it is to take what is old,
simple, and universal, and use it to bring men to-
gethet and make them friends.

Shore calls to shore
That the line is unbroken!

tHK DRAMA OF FAITH

^nd so the Quest goes on. And the Quest, as
it may be, ends in attainment — we know not
where and when: so long as we ca/n conceive of
our separate existence, the quest goes on — an
attainment continued henceforward. And ever
shaU the study of the ways which have been fol-
lowed by those who have passed in front be a
help on our own path.

It is well, it is of all things beautiful and per-
fect, holy and high of all, to be conscious of the
path which does in hne lead thither where toe
seek to go, namely, the goal which is in God,
Taking nothing with us which does not belong
to ourselves, leaving nothing behind us that is of
our real selves, we shall find in the great attain-
ment that the companions of our toil are with
us. And the place is the Valley of Peace,

— Arthxjr Edwam) Wait^, The Secret Tradition

CHAPTER III

The Drama of Faith

M an does not live, by bread alone; he lives by
Eaith, Hope, and Love, and the first of these
was Faith. Nothing in the human story is more
striking than the persistent, passionate, profound
protest of man against death. Even in the earliest
time we see him daring to stand erect at the gates
of the gprave, disputing its verdict, refusing to let
it have the last word, and making argument in be-
half of his soul. For Emerson, as for Addison, that
fact alone was proof enough of immortality, as re-
vealing a universal intuition of eternal life. Others
may not be so easily convinced, but no man who has
the heart of a man can fail to be impressed by the
ancient, heroic faith of his race.

Nowhere has this faith ever been more vivid or
victorious than among the old Egyptians.*' In the

^Of course, faith in immortality was in nowise peculiar to
Egypt, but was universal; as vivid in The Upamshads of India as
in the Pyramid records. It rests upon the consensus of the insight,
experience, and aspiration of the race* But the records of Egypt,
like its monuments, are richer than those of other nations, if not

40

THE BUIEDERS

ancient Book of the Dead — which is, indeed, a
Book of Resurrection — occur the words: “The
soul to heaven; the body to earth;” and that first
faith is our faith today. Of King Unas, who lived
in the third millennium, it is written: “Behold,
thou hast not gone as one dead, but as one living.”
Nor has any one in our day set forth this faith with
more simple eloquence than the Hymn to Osiris, in
the Papyrus of Hunefer. So in the Pyramid Texts
the dead are spoken of as Those Who Ascend, the
Imperishable Ones who shine as stars, and the gods
are invoked to witness the death of the King
“Dawning as a Soul.” There is deep prophecy, al-
beit touched with poignant pathos, in these broken
exclamations written on the pyramid walls :

Thou diest not! Have ye said that he would die? He
diest not; this King Pepi lives forever 1 Live! Thou
shalt not die I He has escaped his day of death 1 Thou
livest, thou livest, raise thee up! Thou diest not, stand
up, raise thee up ! Thou per ishest not eternally ! Thou
diest not ! ^

older. Moreover, the drama of faith with which we have to do here
had its origin in Elgypt, whence it spread to Tyre, Athens, and
Rome — and, as we shall see, even to England For brief exposi-
tions of Egyptian faith see Bgyptian Conceptions of Immortality,
by G, A. Reisner, and Religion and Thought in Bgypt, by J. H.
Breasted.

1 Pyramid Texts. 775, 1262, 1453, 1477.

THE DRAMA OF FAITH

41

Nevertheless, nor poetry nor chant nor solemn
ritual could make death other than death; and the
Pyramid Texts, while refusing to utter the fatal
word, give wistful reminiscences of that blessed
age “before death came forth.” However high the
faith of man, the masterful negation and collapse
of the body was a fact, and it was to keep that dar-
ing faith alive and aglow that The Mysteries were
instituted. Beginning, it may be, in incantation,
they rose to heights of influence and beauty, giving
dramatic portrayal of the unconquerable faith of
man. Watching the sun rise from the tomb of night,
and the spring return in glory after the death of
winter, man reasoned from analogy — justifying a
faith that held him as truly as he held it — that the
race, sinking into the grave, would rise triumphant
over death.

I

There were many variations on this theme as the
drama of faith evolved, and as it passed from land
to land; but the Motif was ever the same, and they
all were derived, directly or indirectly, from the old
Osirian passion-play in Egypt. Against the back-
ground of the ancient Solar religion, Osiris made his
advent as Rord of the Nile and fecund Spirit of

42

THE BUILDERS

vegetable life — son of Nut the sky-goddess and
Geb the earth-god; and nothing in the story of the
Nile-dwellers is more appealing than his conquest
of the hearts of the people against all odds.*^ How-
beit, that history need not detain us here, except to
say that by the time his passion had become the
drama of national faith, it had been bathed in all
the tender hues of human life; though somewhat
of its solar radiance still lingered in it. Enough to
say that of all the gods, called into being by the
hopes and fears of men who dwelt in times of yore
on the banks of the Nile, Osiris was the most be-
loved. Osiris the benign father, Isis his sorrowful
and faithful wife, and Horus whose filial piety and
heroism shine like diamonds in a heap of stones —
about this trinity were woven the ideals of Egyptian
faith and family life. Hear now the story of the
oldest drama of the race, which for more than three
thousand years held captive the hearts of men.*

=^For a full account of the evolution of the Oslrian theology
from the time it emerged from the mists of myth until its con-
quest, see Religion and Thought in Rgypt, by Breasted, the latest,
if not the most brilliant, book written in the light of the completest
translation of the Pyramid Texts (especially lecture v).

« Much has been written about the Egyptian Mysteries from the
days of Plutarch^s De Iside et OHfide and the Metamorphoses of
Apuleius to the huge volumes of Baron Sainte Croix. For popular
reading the Kings and Gods of Bgyptt by Moret (chaps, iii-Jv), and
the delightfully vivid Hermes and Plato, by Schure, could hardly
be surpassed. But Plutarch and Apuleius, both initiates, are our
best authorities, even if their oath of silence prevents them from
telling us what we most want to know

THE DRAMA OF FAITH

43

Osiris was Ruler of Eternity, but by reason of his
visible shape seemed nearly akin to man — reveal-
ing a divine humanity. His success was chiefly
due, however, to the gpracious speech of Isis, his sis-
ter-wife, whose charm men could neither reckon
nor resist. Together they labored for the good of
man, teaching him to discern the plants fit for food,
themselves pressing the grapes and drinking the
first cup of wine. They made known the veins of
metal running through the earth, of which man was
ignorant, and taught him to mahe weapons. They
initiated man into the intellectual and moral life,
taught him ethics and religion, how to read the
starry sky, song and dance and the rhythm of music.
Above all, they evoked in men a sense of immortal-
ity, of a destiny beyond the tomb. Nevertheless,
they had enemies at once stupid and cunning, keen-
witted but short-sighted — the dark force of evil
which still weaves the fringe of crime on the bor-
ders of human life.

Side by side with Osiris, lived the impious Set-
Typhon, as Evil ever haunts the Good. While Osi-
ris was absent, Typhon — whose name means ser-
pent — filled with envy and malice, sought to usurp
his throne; but his plot was frustrated by Isis.
Whereupon he resolved to kill Osiris. This he
did, having invited him to a feast, by persuading
him to enter a chest, offering, as if in jest, to pre-
sent the richly carved chest to any one of his guests

44 the; builders

who, lying down inside it, found he was of the same
size. When Osiris got in and stretched himself
out, the conspirators closed the chest, and flung it
into the Nile/ Thus far, the gods had not known
death. They had grown old, with white hair and
trembling limbs, but old age had not led to death.
As soon as Isis heard of this infernal treachery, she
cut her hair, clad herself in a garb of mourning,
ran thither and yon, a prey to the most cruel an-
guish, Seeking the body. Weeping and distracted,
she never tarried, ’ never tired in her sorrowful
quest.

Meanwhile, the waters carried the chest out to
sea, as far as Byblos in Syria, the town of Adonis,
where it lodged against a shrub of arica, or tama-
risk — like an acacia tree.® Owing to the virtue of

1 Among the Hindoos, whose Chrisna is the same as the Osiris
of Eigypt, the gods of summer were hetieficent, making the days
fruitful. But **the three wretches” who presided over winter, were
cut off from the zodiac; and as they were ”found missing,” they
were accused of the death of Chrisna.

®A literary parallel in the story o£ by Vergil, is most

suggestive. Priam, king of Troy, in the beginning of the Trojan
war committed his son Polydorus to the care of Polymester, king
of Thrace, and sent him a great sum of money. After Troy was
taken the Thracian, for the sake of the money, killed the young
prince and privately buried him. JEneas, coming into that country,
and accidentally plucking up a shrub that was near him on the side
»of the hill, discovered the murdered body of Polydorus. Other
legends of such accidental discoveries of unknown graves haunted
the olden time, and may have been suggested by the story of Isis.

THE DRAMA OE EAITH 45

the body, the shrub, at its touch, shot up into a tree,
growing around it, and protecting it, until the king
of that country cut the tree which hid the chest in
its bosom, and made from it a column for his pal-
ace. At last Isis, led by a vision, came to Byblos,
made herself known, and asked for the column.
Hence tlie picture of her weeping over a broken
column torn from the palace, while Horus, god of
Time, stands behind her pouring ambrosia on her
hair. She took the body back to Egypt, to the city
of Bouto; but Typhon, hunting by moonlight, found
the chest, and having recognized the body of Osiris,
mangled it and scattered it beyond recognition.
Isis, embodiment of the old world-sorrow for the
dead, continued her pathetic quest, gathering piece
by piece the body of her dismembered husband, and
giving him decent interment. Such was the life
and death of Osiris, but as his career pictured the
cycle of nature, it could not of course end here.

Horus fought with Typhon, losing an eye in the
battle, but finally overthrew him and took him pris-
oner. There are several versions of his fate, but
he sterns to have been tried, sentenced, and execut-
ed — ‘'cut in three pieces,” as the Pyramid Texts
relate. Thereupon the faithful son went in solemn
procession to the grave of his father, opened it, and
called upon Osiris to rise: “Stand upl Thou shalt

46

THE BUILDERS

not end, thou shalt not perish!” But death was
deaf. Here the Pyramid Texts recite the mortuary
ritual, with its h3unns and chants; but in vain. At
length Osiris awakes, weary and feeble, and by the
aid of the strong grip of the lion-god he gains con-
trol of his body, and is lifted from death to life.^
Thereafter, by virtue of his victory over death, Osi-
ris becomes L^rd of the Land of Death, his scepter
an Ank Cross, his throne a Square.

H

Such, in brief, was the ancient allegory of eternal
life, upon which there were many elaborations as
the drama unfolded; but always, under whatever
variation of local color, of national accent or em-
phasis, its central theme remained the same. Often
perverted and abused, it was everywhere a dramatic
expression of the great human aspiration for tri-
umph over death and union with God, and the be-
lief in the ultimate victory of Good over Evil. Not
otherwise would this drama have held the hearts of
men through long ages', and won the eulogiums of
the most enlightened men of antiquity — of Pythag-
oras, Socrates, Plato, Euripides, Plutarch, Pindar,
Isocrates, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Writ-
ing to his wife after the loss of their little girl,

^ The Gode of the Bgyptians, by E. A. W. Budge; L,a Place des
Victorest by Austin Fryar, especially the colored plates.

THE DRAMA OF FAITH

47

Plutarch commends to her the hope set forth in the
mystic rites and symbols of this drama, as, else-
where, he testifies that it kept him “as far from
superstition as from atheism,” and helped him to
approach the truth. For deeper minds this drama
had a double meaning, teaching not only immor-
tality after death, but the awakening of man upon
earth from animalism to a life of purity, justice,
and honor. How nobly this practical aspect was
taught, and with what fineness of spiritual insight,
may be seen in Secret Sermon on the Mountain in
the Hermetic lore of Greece; ^

What may I say, my son? I can but tell thee this.
Whenever I see within myself the Simple Vision brought
to birth out of God’s mercy, I have passed through my-
self into a Body that can never die. Then I am not what
I was before. . . They who are thus bom are children
of a Divine race. This race, my son, is never taught ; but
when He willeth it, its memory is restored by God. It is
the “Way of Birth in God.” . . Withdraw into thyself
and it will come. WUl, and it comes to pass.

Isis herself is said to have established the first
temple of the Mysteries, the oldest being those prac-
ticed at Memphis. Of these there were two orders,
the Lesser to which the many were eligible, and
which consisted of dialogue and ritual, with certain
signs, tokens, grips, passwords; and the Greater,
i New and Old, by G. R. S* Mead.

48

THE BUIEDERS

reserved for the few who approved themselves
worthy of being entrusted with the highest secrets
of science, philosophy, and religion. For these the
candidate had to undergo trial, purification, danger,
austere asceticism, and, at last, regeneration
through dramatic death amid rejoicing. Such as
endured the ordeal with valor were then taught,
orally and by s)mibol, the highest wisdom to which
man had attained, including geometry, astronomy,
the fine arts, the laws of nature, as well as the truths
of faith. Awful oaths of secrecy were exacted, and
Plutarch describes a man kneeling, his hands bound,
a cord round his body, and a knife at his throat —
death being the penalty of violating the obligation.
Even then, Pythagoras had to wait almost twenty
years to learn the hidden wisdom of Egypt, so cau-
tious were they of candidates, especially of foreign-
ers. But he made noble use of it when, later, he
founded a secret order of his own at Crotona, in
Greece, in which, among other things, he taught
geometry, using numbers as symbols of spiritual
truth.^

Prom Egypt the Mysteries passed with little
change to Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome, the

'^Pythagoras, by Edouard Schure — a fascinatingr story of that
great thinker and teacher. The use of numbers by Pythagoras
must not, however, be confounded with the mystical, or rather fan-
tastic, mathematics of the Kabbalists of a later time.

THE DRAMA OR FAITH

49

names of local gods being substituted for those of
Osiris and Isis. The Grecian or Eleusinian Mys-
teries, established 1800 B. C., represented Demeter
and Persephone, and depicted the death of Diony-
sius with stately ritual which led the neophyte from
death into life and immortality. They taught the
tmity of God, the immutable necessity of morality,
and a life after death, investing initiates with signs
and passwords by which they could know ,each
other in the dark as well as in the light. The
Mithraic or Persian Mysteries celebrated the eclipse
of the Sun-god, using the signs of the zodiac, the
processions of the seasons, the death of nature, and
the birth of spring. The Adoniac or Syrian cults
were similar, Adonis being killed, but revived to
point to life through death. In the Cabirie Mys-
teries on the island of Samothrace, Atys the Sun
was killed by his brothers the Seasons, and at the
vernal equinox was restored to life. So, also, the
Druids, as far north as England, taught of one God
the tragedy of winter and summer, and conducted
the initiate through the valley of death to life ever-
lasting.^

I- For a vivid account of the spread of the Mysteries of Isis and
Mithra over the Roman Empire, see Rowan lAfe from Nero Xo
Aurelius, by Dill (bk. iv, chaps v-vi). Franz Cumont is the great
authority on Mithra, and his Mysteries of Mithra and Oriental Re^
hgxons trace the origin and influence of that cult with accuracy, in-

50

THE BUIEDERS

Shortly before the Christian era, when faith was
failing and the world seemed reeling to its ruin,
there was a great revival of the Mystery-religions.
Imperial edict was powerless to stay it, much less
stop it. From Egypt, from the far East, they came
rushing in like a tide, Isis “of the myriad names”
vicing with Mithra, the patron saint of the soldier,
for the homage of the multitude. If we ask the
secret reason for this influx of mysticism, no single
answer can be given to the question. What influ-
ence the reigning mystery-cults had upon the new,
uprising Christianity is also hard to know, and the
issue is still in debate. That they did influence the
early Church is evident from the writings of the
Fathers, and some go so far as to say that the Mys-
teries died at last only to live again in the ritual of
the Church. St. Paul in his missionary journeys
came in contact with the Mysteries, and even makes
use of some of their technical terms in his epistles ;
but he condemned ‘them on the ground that what

sight, atid charm. W. W. Reade, brother of Charles Reade the
novelist, left a study of The Veil of or Mysteries of the
Druidst Ending in the vestiges of Druidism l^blems of Ma-
sonry.”

^Col. 2*8-19. See Mysteries Pagan and Christian, by C. Chee-
t6hti; also Monumental Christianity, by Lundy, especially chapter
on “The Discipline of the Secret.” For a full discussion of the atti-
tude of St. Paul, see St Paul and the Mystery-'Religtons, by Ken-
nedy, a work of fine scholarship. That Christianity had its esoteric

THE DRAMA OE EAITH

51

tliey sought to teach in drama can be known only
by spiritual experience — a sound insight, though
surely drama may assist to that experience, else
public worship might also come under ban.

Ill

Toward the end of their power, the Mysteries
fell into the mire and became corrupt, as all things
human are apt to do : even the Church itself being
no exception. But that at their highest and best
they were not only lofty and noble, but elevating
and refining, there can be no doubt, and that they
served a high purpose is equally clear. No one,
who has read in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius
the initiation of Lucius into the Mysteries of Isis,
can doubt that the eflFect on the votary was pro-
found and purifying. He tells us that the cere-
mony of initiation “is, as it were, to suffer death,”
and that he stood in the presence of the gods, “ay,

h plain — as it was natural — from the writings of the Fathers, in-*
eluding Origen, Cyril, Basil, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, and
others. Chrysostom often uses the word initiation in respect of
Christian teaching, while Tertullian denounces the pagan mysteries
counterfeit imitations by Satan of the Christian secret rites and
teachings * also baptises those who believe in him, and pron^
ises that they shall come forth, cleansed of their sins*' Olher
Christian writers were more tolerant, finding in Christ the anbwer
to the aspiration uttered in the Mysteries; and therein, it may be,
they were right

52

THE BUIEDERS

stood near and worshiped.” Par hence ye profane,
and all who are polluted by sin, was the motto of
the Mysteries, and Cicero testifies that what a man
learned in the house of the hidden place made him
want to live nobly, and gave him happy hopes for
the hour of death.

Indeed, the Mysteries, as Plato said,^ were estab-
lished by men of great genius who, in the early ages,
strove to teach purity, to ameliorate the cruelty of
the race, to refine its manners and morals, and to
restrain society by stronger bonds than those which
human laws impose. No mystery any longer at-
taches to what they taught, but only as to the par-
ticular rites, dramas, and symbols used in their
teaching. They taught faith in the unity and spir-
ituality of God, the sovereign authority of the moral
law, heroic purity of soul, austere discipline of char-
acter, and the hope of a life beyond the tomb. Thus
in ages of darkness, of complexity, of conflicting
peoples, tongues, and faiths, these great orders
toiled in behalf of friendship, bringing men together
under a banner of faith, and training them for a
nobler moral life. Tender and tolerant of all faiths,
they formed an all-embracing iporal and spiritual
fellowship which rose above barriers of nation,
race, and creed, satisfying the craving of men for

^Phaado^

THE DRAMA OF FAITH 53

unity, while evoking in them a sense of that eternal
mysticism out of which all religions were born.
Their ceremonies, so far as we know them, were
stately dramas of the moral life and the fate of the
soul. Mystery and secrecy added impressiveness,
and fable and enigma disguised in imposing spec-
tacle the laws of justice, piety, and the hope of im-
mortality.

Masonry stands in this tradition; and if we may
not say that it is historically related to the great
ancient orders, it is their spiritual descendant, and
renders much the same ministry to our age which
the Mysteries rendered to the olden world. It is,
indeed, the same stream of sweetness and light
flowing in our day — like the fabled river Alpheus
which, gathering the waters of a hundred rills along
the hillsides of Arcadia, sank, lost to sight, in a
chasm in the earth, only to reappear in the fountain
of Arethusa. This at ledst is true : the Greater An-
cient Mysteries were prophetic of Masonry whose
drama is an epitome of universal initiation, and
whose simple symbols are the depositaries of the
noblest wisdom of mankind. As such, it brings men
together at the altar of prayer, keeps alive the
truths that make us men, seeking, by every resource
of art, to make tangible the power of love, the worth
of beauty, and the reality of the ideal.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE

The value of man does not consist in the truth
which he possesses, or means to possess, but in
the sincere pmn which he hath taken to iind it
out Tor his powers do not augment by possess^
ing truth, but by investigating it, wherein consists
his only perfectibility. Possession lulls the en^
ergy of mm, and makes kirn idle and proud.
If God held inclosed in his right hand absolute
truth, and in his left only the inward lively imr
pulse toward truth, and if He said to me:
Choose! even at the risk of exposing mankind to
continual erring, I most humbly would seise
His left hand, and say Tather, give! absolute
truth belongs to Thee alone.

G. IS, Iyii,ssiNG, Fragments

CHAPTER IV
The Secret Doctrine
I

G od ever shields us from premature ideas, said
the gracious and wise Emerson; and so does
nature. She holds back her secrets until man is fit
tp be entrusted with them, lest by rashness he de-
stroy himself. Those who seek find, not because
the truth is far off, but because the discipline of the
quest makes them ready for the truth, and worthy
to receive it. By a certain sure instinct the great
teachers of our race have regarded the highest truth
less as a gift bestowed than as a trophy to be won.
Everything must not be told to everybody. Truth
is power, and when held by untrue hands it may be-
come a plague. Even Jesus had His “little flock"
to whom He confided much which He kept from
the world, or else taught it in parables cryptic and
veiled.’' One of His sayings in explanation of His
method is quoted by Clement of Alexandria in his
Homilies :
iMatt. 13:10, 11.

THE BUILDERS

S8

It was not from grudgingness that our I^ord gave the
charge in a certain Gospel: “My mystery is for Me and
the sons of My house.” ^

This more withdrawn teaching, hinted in the say-
ing of the Master, with the arts of spiritual culture
employed, has come to be known as the Secret Doc-
trine, or the Hidden Wisdom. A persistent tradi-
tion affirms that throughout the ages, and in every
land, behind the system of faith accepted by the
masses an inner and deeper doctrine has been held
and taught by those able to grasp it. This hidden
faith has undergone many changes of outward ex-
pression, using now one set of symbols and now
another, but its central tenets have remained the
same; and necessarily so, since the ultimates of
thought are ever immutable. By the same token,
those who have eyes to see have no difficulty in pen-
etrating the varying veils of expression arid identi-
fying the underlying truths ; thus confirming in the
arcana of faith what we found to be true in its
earliest forms — the oneness of the human mind
and the unity of truth.

There are those who resent the suggestion that
there is, or can be, secrecy in regard to spiritual
truths which, if momentous at all, are of common
moment to all. For this reason Demonax, in the
Lucian play, would not be initiated, because, if the
1 Unwritten Sayings of Oi& Lord, David Smith, vii.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE

59

Mysteries were bad, he would not keep silent as a
warning; and if they were good, he would proclaim
them as a duty. The objection is, however, un-
sound, as a little thought will reveal. Secrecy in
such matters inheres in the nature of the truths
themselves, not in any affected superiority of a few
elect minds. Qualification for the knowledge of
higher things is, and must always be, a matter of
personal fitness. Other qualification there is none.
For those who have that fitness the Secret Doctrine
is as clear as sunlight, and for those who have it
not the truth would still be secret though shouted
from the house-top. The Grecian Mysteries were
certainly secret, yet the fact of their existence was
a matter of common knowledge, and there was no
more secrecy about their sanctuaries than there is
about a cathedral. Their presence testified to the
public that a deeper than the popular faith did ex-
ist, but the right to admission into them depended
upon the whole-hearted wish of the aspirant, and
his willingness to fit himself to know the truth.
The old maxim applies here, that when the pupil is
ready the teacher is found waiting, and he passes
on to know a truth hitherto hidden because he
lacked either the aptitude or the desire.

All is mystery as of course, but mystification is
another thing, and the tendency to befog a theme
which needs to be clarified, is to be regretted. Here

6o

THK BUIIvDERS

lies, perhaps, the real reason for the feeling of re-
sentment against the idea of a Secret Doctrine, and
one must admit that it is not without justification.
For example, we are told that behind the age-long
struggle of man to know the truth there exists a
hidden fraternity of initiates, adepts in esoteric lore,
known to themselves but not to the world, who have
had in their keeping, through the centuries, the high
truths which they permit to be dimly adumbrated
in the popular faiths, but which the rest of the race
are too obtuse, even yet, to grasp save in an imper-
fect and limited degree. These hidden sages, it
would seem, look upon our eager aspiring humanity
much like the patient masters of an idiot school,
watching it go on forever seeking without finding,
while they sit in seclusion keeping the keys of the
occult.^ All of which would be very wonderful, if
true. It is, however, only one more of those fascin-
ating fictions with which mystery-mongers enter-
tain themselves, and deceive others. Small wonder

^By occultism is meant the belief in, and the claim to be able
to use, a certain range of forces neither natural, nor, technically,
supernatural, but more properly to be called preternatural — often,
though by no means always, for evil or selfish ends. Some extend
the term occultism to cover mysticism and the spiritual life gener-
ally, but that is not a legitimate use of either word. Occultism
seeks to get; mysticism to give. The one is audacious and seclusive,
the other humble and open; and if we are not to end in blunderland
we must not confound the two (Mysticism, by Underbill, part i,
chap. vii).

THK SECRET DOCTRINE

6i

that thinking men turn from such fanciful folly
with mingled feelings of pity and disgust. Sages
there have been in every land and time, and their
lofty wisdom has the unity which inheres in all high
human thought, but that there is now, or has ever
been, a conscious, much less a continuous, fellow-
ship of superior souls holding as secrets truths
denied to their fellow-men, verges upon the absurd.

Indeed, what is called the Secret Doctrine differs
not one whit from what has been taught openly and
earnestly, so far as such truth can be taught in
words or pictured in symbols, by the highest minds
of almost every land and language. The difference
lies less in what is taught than in the way in which
it is taught; not so much in matter as in method.
Also, we must not forget that, with few exceptions,
the men who have led our race farthest along the
way toward the Mount of Vision, have not been
men who learned their lore from any coterie of
esoteric experts, but, rather, men who told in song
what they had been taught in sorrow — initiates
into eternal truth, to be sure, but by the grace of
God and the divine right of genius ! ^ Seers, sages,

^ Much time would have been saved, and not a little confusion
avoided, had this obvioxis fact been kept in mind. Even so charm-
ing a book as Jesus, the Great Initiate, by Schure — not to
speak of The Great Work and Mystic Masonry — is clearly, though
not intentionally, misleading. Of a piece with this is the effort,
apparently deliberate and concerted, to rob the Hebrew race of all

62

THE BUILDERS

mystics, saints — these are they who, having
sought in sincerity, found in reality, and the mem-
ory of them is a kind of religion. Some of them,
like Pythagoras, were trained for their quest in the
schools of the Secret Doctrine, but others went their
way alone, though never unattended, and, led by
“the vision splendid,” they came at last to the gate
and passed into the City.

Why, then, it may be asked, speak of such a thing
as the Secret Doctrine at all, since it were better
named the Open Secret of the world? Eor two rea-
sons, both of which have been intimated: first, in
the olden times unwonted kfiowledge of any kind
was a very dangerous possession, and the truths of
science and philosophy, equally with religious ideas
otWr than those in vogue among the multitude, had
to seek the protection of obscurity. If this neces-
sity gave designing priestcraft its opportunity, it
nevertheless offered the security and silence need-
ed by the thinker and seeker after truth in dark

spiritual original!^, as witness so able a work as Our Own Re-
Ugion tn Persia, by Mills, to name no other* Our own religion?
Assuredly, if by that is meant the one great, universal religion of
humanity. But tho sundering difference between the Bible and any
other book that speaks to mankind about God and lyife and Death,
sets the Hebrew race apart as supreme in its religious genius, as the
Greeks were in philosophical acumen and artistic power, and the
Romans in executive skill. I<eaving«an theories of inspiration out
of account, facts are facts, and the Bible has no peer in the lit-
erature of maiikind.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE

63

times. Hence there arose in the ancient world,
wherever the human mind was alive and spiritual,
systems of exoteric and esoteric instruction ; that is,
of truth taught openly and truth concealed. Dis-
ciples were advanced from the outside to the inside
of this divine philosophy, as we have seen, by de-
grees of initiation. Whereas, by symbols, dark say-
ings, and dramatic ritual the novice received only
hints of what was later made plain.

Second, this hidden teaching may indeed be de-
scribed as the open secret of the world, because it
is open, yet understood only by those fit to receive
it. What kept it hidden was no arbitrary restric-
tion, but only a lack of insight and fineness of mind
to appreciate and assimilate it. Nor could it be
otherwise; and this is as true today as ever it was
in the days of the Mysteries, and so it will be until
whatever is to be the end of mortal things. Fit-
ness for the finer truths cannot be conferred; it
must be developed. Without it the teachings of the
sages are enigmas that seem unintelligible, if not
contradictory. In so far, then, as the discipline of
initiation, and its use of art in drama and symbol,,
help toward purity of soul and spiritual awakening,
by so much do they prepare men for the truth ; by
so much and no furthep So that, the Secret Doc-
trine, whether as taught by the ancient Mysteries
or by modern Masonry, is less a doctrine than a

64

THE BUILDERS

discipline ; a method of organized spiritual culture,
and as such has a place and a ministry among men.

11

Perhaps the greatest student in this field of
esoteric teaching and method, certainly the greatest
now living, is Arthur Edward Waite, to whom it
is a pleasure to pay tribute. By nature a symbolist,
if not a sacramentalist, he found in such studies a
task for which he was almost ideally fitted by tem-
perament, training, and genius. Engaged in busi-
ness, but not absorbed by it, years of quiet, leisurely
toil have made him master of the vast literature
and lore of his subject, to the study of which he
brought a religious nature, the accuracy and skill
of a scholar, a sureness and delicacy of insight at
once sympathetic and critical, the soul of a poet, and
a patience as untiring as it is rewarding; qualities
rare indeed, and still more rarely blended. Prolific
but seldom prolix, he writes with grace, ease, and
lucidity, albeit in a style often opulent, and touched
at times with lights and jewels from old alchemists,
antique liturgies, remote and haunting romance,
secret orders of initiation, and other recondite
sources not easily traced. Much learning and
many kinds of wisdom are in his pages, and withal
an air of serenity, of tolerance ; and if he is of those

THE SECRET DOCTRINE 65

who turn down another street when miracles are
performed in the neighborhood, it is because, hav-
ing found the inner truth, he asks for no sign.

Always he writes in the conviction that all great
subjects bring us back to the one subject which is
alone great, and that scholarly criticisms, folk-lore,
and deep philosophy are little less than useless if
they fall short of directing us to our true end — the
attainment of that living Truth which is about us
everywhere. He conceives of our mortal life as
one eternal Quest of that living Truth, taking many
phases and forms, yet ever at heart the same as-
piration, to trace which he has made it his labor and
joy to essay. Through all his pages he is following
out the tradition of this Quest, in its myriad as-
pects, especially since the Christian era, disfigured
though it has been at times by superstition, and dis-
torted at others by bigotry, but still, in what guise
soever, containing as its secret the meaning of the
life of man from his birth to his reunion with God
who is his Goal. And the result is a series of vol-
umes noble in form, united in aim, unique in wealth
of revealing beauty, and of unequalled worth.^

1 Some there are who think that much of the best work of Mr.
Waite is in his poetry, of which there are two volumeSi A Book
of Mystery and Vision, and Strange Houses of Sleeps There one
meets a fine spirit, alive to the glory of the world and all that
charms (he soul and sense of man, yet seeing past these; rich and

66

THE BUILDERS

Beginning as far back as 1886, Waite issued his
study of the Mysteries of Magic, a digest of the
writings of Eliphas Levi, to whom Albert Pike was
more indebted than he let us know. Then followed
the Real History of the Rosicrucians, which traces,
as far as any mortal may trace, the thread of fact
whereofl is strung the romance of a fraternity the
very existence of which has been doubted and de-
nied by turns. Like all his work, it bears the im-
press of knowledge from the actual sources, betray-
ing his extraordinary learning and his exceptional
experience in this kind of inquiry. Of the Quest in
its distinctively Christian aspect, he has written in
The Hidden Church of the Holy GraaT, a work of
rare beauty, of bewildering richness, written in a
style which, partaking of the quality of the story
told, is not at all after the manner of these days.
But the Graal Legend is only one aspect of the old-
world sacred Quest, uniting the symbols of chiv-
alry with Christian faith. Masonry is another ; and
no one may ever hope to write of The Secret Tradi-
tion in Masonry with more insight and charm, or
a touch more sure and revealing, than this gracious
student for whom Masonry perpetuates the insti-

sig:iiificant thought so closely wedded to emotion that each seems
either. Other hooks not to be omitted are his slender volume of
aphorisms^ Sups io the Crowa^ his Life of Saiat’-Martin, and his
iS'iMdtej in Mysticism; for what he touches be adorns.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE 67

tilted Mysteries of antiquity, with much else derived
from innumerable store-houses of treasure. His
last work is a survey of The Secret Doctrine in
Israel, being a study of the Zohar^ or Hebrew
“Book of Splendor,” a feat for which no Hebrew
scholar has had the heart This Bible of Kabbal-
ism is indeed so confused and confusing that only a
“golden dustman” would have had the patience to
sift out its gems from the mountain of dross, and
attempt to reduce its wide-weltering chaos to order.
Even Waite, with all his gift of research and nar-
ration, finds little more than gleams of dawn in a
dim forest, brilliant vapors, and glints that tell by
their very perversity and strangeness.

Whether this age-old legend of the Quest be
woven about the Cup of Christ, a Tost Word, or a
design left unfinished by the death of a Master
Builder, it has always these things in common : first,
the memorials of a great loss which has befallen hu-
manity by sin, making our race a pilgrim host ever
in search ; second, the intimation that what was lost
still exists somewhere in time and the world, al-

^Evcn the Jewish Bncyclopedia, and such scholars as Zunz,
GraetZ) I^uzzatto, Jost, and Munk avoid this jungle, as well thc^
might, remembering the legend of the four sages in "the enclosed
garden:" one of whom looked around and dted; another lost his
reason; a third tried to destroy the garden; and only one came out
with his wits. See The Cohote, by Pick, and The Kabbalah C/w-
vetledf by MacGregor. ^

68

THE BUIEDERS

though deeply buried; third, the faith that it will
ultimately be found and the vanished glory re-
stored; fourth, the substitution of something tem-
porary and less than the best, albeit never in a way
to adjourn the quest; fifth, and more rarely, the felt
presence of that which was lost under veils close to
the hands of all. What though it take many forms,
from the pathetic pilgrimage of the Wandering Jew
to the journey to fairyland in quest of The Blue
Bird, it is ever and always the same. These are
but so many symbols of the fact that men are made
of one blood and born to one need; that they should
seek the lyord, if haply they might feel after Him,
and find Him, though He is not far from every one
of us ; for in Him we live and move and have our
being.^

What, then, is the Secret Doctrine, of which this
seer-like scholar has written with so many impro-
visations of eloquence and emphasis, and of which
each of us is in quest? What, indeed, but that
which all the world is seeking — knowledge of Him
whom to know aright is the fulfillment of every
human need: the kinship of the soul with Gtod; the
life of purity, honor, and piety demanded by that
high heredity; the unity and fellowship of the race
in duty and destiny; and the faith that the soul is

lActs 17:26-28.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE

69

deathless as Gk)d its Father is deathless! Now to
accept this faith as a mere philosophy is one thing,
but to realize it as an experience of the innermost
heart is another and a deeper thing. No man
knows the Secret Doctrine until it has become the
secret of his soul, the reigning reality of his
thought, the inspiration of his acts, the form and
color and glory of his life. Happily, owing to the
growth of the race in spiritual intelligence and
power, the highest truth is no longer held as a
sacred secret. Still, if art has efficacy to surprise
and reveal the elusive Spirit of Truth, when truth
is dramatically presented it is made vivid and im-
pressive, strengthening the faith of the strongest
and bringing a ray of heavenly light to many a
baffled seeker.

Ever the Quest goes on, though it is permitted
some of us to believe that the Lost Word has been
found, in the only way in which it can ever be
found — even in the life of Him who was *'the
Word made flesh,” who dwelt among us and whose
grace and beauty we know. Of this Quest Masonry
is an aspect, continuing the high tradition of hu-
manity, asking men to unite in the search for the
thing most worth finding, that each may share the
faith of all. Apart from its rites, there is no mys-
tery in Masonry, save the mystery of all great and

70 THE BUILDERS

simple things. So far from being hidden or occult,
its glory lies in its openness, and its emphasis upon
the realities which are to the human world what
light and air are to nature. Its mystery is of so
great a kind that it is easily overlooked; its secret
almost too simple to be found out.^

1 All secret Orders, it may be added, are a reminiscence, if not a
survival, of the Men^s House of primitive society, a tribal Lodge in
■which every young man, when he came to maturity, was initiated into
the secret law, legend, tradition, and religion of his people. Recent
research has brought this long hidden institution to light, showing
that it was really the center of early tribal life, the council-chamber,
the guest-house, the place where laws were made and courts held,
and where the trophies of war were treasured. Indeed, primitive
society was really a secret society so far as the men were concerned,
and unless we keep this fact in mind we can hardly understand it
at all. Every man was an initiate. Methods of initiation differed
in different times and places, but they had, nevertheless, a certain
likeness, as they had always the same purpose. Ordeals, often severe
and frightful, were required— exposing the candidate not only to
physical torture, but to the peril of unseen spirits — as tests to prove
youth worthy, by reason of virtue and valor, to be entrusted ■with
the secret lore of his tribe. The ceremonies included vows of
chastity, of loyalty and secrecy, and, almost universally, a mimic
representation of the death and resurrection of the novice. After
his 'initiation into manhood,” for such it really was, he was given a
new name, and a new language of signs, grips, and tokens. No
doubt it was this antiquity of the idea and necessity of initiation that
our Masonic fathers had in mind when they said that Masonry began
with the beginning of history — and, so interpreted, they were right.
At any rate the Men's House, with its initiatory rites and secret
teaching, was one of the great institutions of humanity whiph
Masonry perpetuates today. (For a scientific account of the Men's
House, see Primitive Secret Societies, by Prof, Hutton Webster.)

THE COLLEGIA

This society was coiled the Dionysian Artif-^
icersj as Bacchus was supposed' to he the in-
ventor of building theaters; and they performed
the Dionysian festivities. From this period^ the
Science of Astronomy which had given rise to
the Dionysian rites, became connected with types
taken from the art of building. The Ionian so-
cieties . . . extended their moral views, in con-
junction with the art of building, to many useful
purposes, and to the practice of acts of benevo-
lence, They had significant words to distinguish
their members; and for the same purpose they
used emblems taken from the art of building.

— Jos^H Da Cosi^A, Dionysian Artificers

We need not then consider it improbable, if in
the dark centimes when the Roman empire was
dying out, and its glorious temples failing into
ruin; when the (srts and sciences were falling into
disuse or being enslaved; and when no place was
safe from persecution and warfare, the guild of
the Architects should fly for safety to almost the
only free spot in Italy; and here, though they
cotdd no longer practice their craft, they pre-
served the legendary knowledge and precepts
which, as history implies, came down to them
through Vitruvius from older sources, some say
from Solomon^s builders themselves.

— Scott, The Cathedral Builders

CHAPTER V
The Collegia

S O far in our study we have found that from ear-
liest time architecture was related to religion;
that the w’orking* tools of the builder were emblems
of moral truth; that there were great secret orders
using the Drama of Faith as a rite of initiation; and
that a hidden doctrine was kept for those accounted
worthy, after trial, to be entrusted with it. Secret
societies, born of the nature and need of man, there
have been almost since recorded history began but
as yet we have come upon no separate and distinct
order of builders. For aught we know there may
have been such in plenty, but we have no intimation,
much less a record, of the fact. That is to say, his-
tory has a vague story to tell us of the earliest
orders of the builders.

However, it is more than a mere plausible infer-
ence that from the beginning architects were mem-
bers of secret orders ; for, as we have seen, not only
the truths of religion and philosophy, but also the

^Primitive Secret Societies^ by H. Webster; Secret Societies of
all Ages and Lands, by W. C. Heckcthom.

74

THE BUILDERS

facts of science and the laws of art, were held as
secrets' to be known only to the few. This was so,
apparently without exception, among all ancient
peoples; so much so, indeed, that we may take it as
certain that the builders of old time were initiates.
Of necessity, then, the arts of the craft were secrets
jealously guarded, and the architects themselves,
while they may have employed and trained ordinary
workmen, were men of learning and influence.
Such glimpses of early architects as we have con-
firm this inference, as, for example, the noble hymn
to the Sun-god written by Suti and Hor, two archi-
tects employed by Amenhotep III, of Egypt.^ Just
when the builders began to form orders of their
own no one knows, but it was perhaps when the
Mystery-cults began to journey abroad into other
lands. What we have to keep in mind is that all the
arts had their home in the temple, from which, as
time passed, they spread out fali-wise along all the
paths of culture.

Keeping in mind the secrecy of the laws of build-
ing, and the sanctity with which all science and art
were regarded, we have a key whereby to interpret

1 We may add the case of Weshptah, one of the viziers of the
Fifth Dynasty in Egypt, about 2700 B. C , and also the royal archi-
tect, for whom the great tomh was built, endowed, and furnished
by the king (Relt^/ion in Sgyptt by Breasted, lecture ii) ; also the
statue of Semut, chief of Masons under Queen Hatasu, now in
Berlin.

THE COEEEGIA

75

the legends woven about the building of the temple
of Solomon. Eew realize how high that temple on
Mount Moriah towered in the history of the olden
world, and how the story of its building haunted
the legends and traditions of the times following.
Of these legends there were many, some of them
wildly improbable, but the persistence of the tradi-
tion, and its consistency withal, despite many varia-
tions, is a fact of no small moment. Nor is this
tradition to be wondered at, since time has shown
that the building of the temple at Jerusalem was an
event of world-importance, not only to the Hebrews,
but to other nations, more especially the Phoeni-
cians. The histories of both peoples malce mucli of
the building of the Hebrew temple, of the friendship
of Solomon and Hiram I, of Tyre, and of the har-
mony between the two peoples ; and Phoenician tra-
dition has it that Solomon presented Hiram with a
duplicate of the temple, which was erected in Tyre.^

Clearly, the two nations were drawn closely to-
gether, and this fact carried with it a mingling of
religious influences and ideas, as was true between
the Hebrews and other nations, especially Egypt
and Phoenicia, during the reign of Solomon. Now

^Historians His. World, vol. ii, chap, liu Josephus gives an
elaborate account of the temple^ including the correspondence be-
tween Solomon and Hiram of Tyre {Jewish Antiquities, bk. viii,
chaps, 2-6).

THK BUILDERS

^6

the religion of the Phoenicians at this time, as all
agree, was the Eg3^tian religion in a modified
form, Dionysius having taken the role of Osiris in
the drama of faith in Greece, Syria, and Asia
Minor. Thus we have the Mysteries of Egypt, in
which Moses was learned, brought to the very door
of the temple of Solomon, and that, too, at a time
favorable to their impress. The Hebrews were not
architects, and it is plain from the records that the
temple — 'and, indeed, the palaces of Solomon —
were designed and erected by Phoenician builders,
and for the most part by Phoenician workmen and
materials. Josephus adds that the architecture of
the temple was of the style called Grecian. So
much would seem to be fact, whatever may be said
of the legends flowing from it.

If, then, the laws of building were secrets known
only to initiates, there must have been a secret or-
der of architects who built the temple of Solomon.
Who were they? They were almost certainly the
Dionysian Artificers — not to be confused with the
play-actors called by the same name later — an or-
der of builders who erected temples, stadia, and
theaters in Asia Minor, and who were at the same
time an order of the Mysteries under the tutelage
of Bacchus before that worship declined, as it did
later in Athens and Rome, into mere revelry As

^ Symbolic of Masowry^ M^ickey, chap, vi; also in Mackey's
Bncyclopedia of Masonry^ both of which were drawn from History

THE COIvTEGIA

77

such, they united the art of architecture with the
old Egyptian drama of faith, representing in their
ceremonies the murder of Dionysius by the Titans
and his return to life. So that, blending the s)mi-
bols of Astronomy with those of Architecture, by a
slight change made by a natural process, how easy
for the master-artist of the temple-builders to be-
come the hero of the ancient drama of immortality.^

of Masonry, by Lattrie, chap, i; and Laurie in turn derived his facts
from a Sketch for the History of the Dionysian Artificers, A Prag-
ment, by H. J. Da Costa (1820). Why Waite and others brush
the Dionysian architects aside as a dream is past finding out in view
of the evidence and authorities put forth by Da Costa, nor do they
give any reason for so doing. 'Xebedos was the seat and assembly
of the Dionysian Artificers, who inhabit Ionia to the Hellespont;
there they had annually their solemn meetings and festivities in
honor of Bacchus,’* wrote Strabo (lib. xiv, 921). They were a
secret society having signs and words to distinguish their members
(Robertson’s Greece), and used emblems taken from the art of
building (Eusebius, de Prep, Bvang, iii, c. 12). They entered
Asia Minor and Phoenicia fifty years before the temple of Solomon
was built, and Strabo traces them on into Syria, Persia, and India.
Surely here are facts not to be swept aside as romance because,
forsooth, they do not fit certain theories. Moreover, th^ explain
many things, as we shall see.

1 Rabbinic legend has it that all the workmen on the temple were
killed, so that they should not build another temple devoted to
idolatry (Jewish Bncyclopedia, article '’Freemasonry”). Other
legends equally absurd cluster about the temple and its building,
none of which is to be taken literally. As a fact, Hiram the
architect, or rather artificer in metals, did not lose his life, but, as
Josephus tells us, lived to good age and died at Tyre. What the
legend is trying to tell us, however, is that at the building of the
temple the M 3 ^teries mingled with Hebrew faith, each mutually in-
fluencing the other.

THE BUIEDERS

78

Whether or not this fact can be verified from his-
tory, such is the form in which the tradition has come
down to us, surviving through long ages and tri-
umphing over all vicissitude.^ Secret orders have
few records and their story is hard to tell, but this
account is perfectly in accord with the spirit and
setting of the situation, and there is neither fact nor
reason against it. While this does not establish it
as true historically, it surely gives it validity as a
prophecy, if nothing more.*

^Strangely enough, there is a sect or tribe called the Druses,
now inhabiting the Lebanon district, who claim to be not only the
descendants of the Phoenicians, but the builders of King Solomon's
temple* So persistent and important among them is this tradition
that their religion is built about it — if indeed it be not something
more than a legend. They have Khalwehs, or temples, built after
the fashion of lodges, with three degrees of initiation, and, though
an agricultural folk, they use signs and tools of building as emblems
of moral truth. They have signs, grips, and passwords for recog-
nition, In the words of their lawgiver, Hamze, their creed reads :
"The belief in the Truth of One God shall take the place of Prayer ;
the exercise of brotherly love shall take the place of Fasting; and
the daily practice of acta of Charity shall take the place of Alms-
giving.” Why such a people, having such a tradition? Where did
they get it? What may this fact set in the fixed and changeless
East mean? (See the essay of Hackett Smith on "The Druses and
Their Relation to Freemasonry,” and the discussion following, Ars
Qmtuor Coronatormn, iv. 7-190

2 Rawlinson, in his History of Phoenicia^ says the people "had
for ages possessed the mason's art, it having been brought in very
early days from Egypt.” Sir C, Warren found on the foundation
stones at Jerusalem mason's marks in Phoenician letters (A* Q* C.,
ii, 125; iii, 68).

THE COEEEGIA

79

After all, then, the tradition that Masonry, not
unlike the Masonry we now know, had its origin
while the temple of King Solomon was building,
and was given shape by the two royal friends, may
not be so fantastic as certain superior folk seem to
think it How else can we explain the fact that
when the Knights of the Crusades went to the Holy
Land they came back a secret, oath-bound frater-
nity? Also, why is it that, through the ages, we see
bands of builders coming from the East calling
themselves “sons of Solomon,” and using his inter-
laced triangle-seal as their emblem? Strabo, as we
have seen, traced the Dionysiac builders eastward
into Syria, Persia, and even India, They may also
be traced westward. Traversing Asia Minor, they
entered Europe by way of Constantinople, and we
follow them through Greece to Rome, where al-
ready several ^centuries before Christ we find them
bound together in corporations called Collegia.
These lodges flourished in all parts of the Roman
Empire, traces of their existence having been dis-
covered in England as early as the middle of the
first century of our era.

II

Krause was the first to point out a prophecy of
Masonry in the old orders of builders, following

8o

THE BUIEDERS

their footsteps — not connectedly, of course, for
there are many gaps — through the Dionysiac fra-
ternity of Tyre, through the Roman Collegia, to the
architects and Masons of the Middle Ages. Since
he wrote, however, much new material has come to
light, but the date of the advent of the builders in
Rome is still uncertain. Some trace it to the very
founding of the city, while others go no further
back than King Numa, the friend of Pythagoras."^
By any account, they were of great antiquity, and
their influence in Roman history was far-reaching.
They followed the Roman legions to remote places,
building cities, bridges, and temples, and it was but
natural that Mithra, the patron god of soldiers,
should have influenced their orders. Of this an ex-
ample may be seen in the remains of the ancient
Roman villa at Morton, on the Isle of Wight.®

As Rome grew in power and became a vast, all-
embracing empire, the individual man felt, more

1 See essay on “A Masonic Built City,” by S, R. Forbes, a study
of the plan and building of Rome, Ars Quatuor Coronatorumj iv, 86.
As there will be many references to the proceedings of the Cor^
onatorum I^odge of Research, it will be convenient hereafter to use
onfy its initials, A, Q, C., in behalf of brevity. For an account of
the Collegia in early Christian times, see Roman Ltfe from Nero
to Aurelius, by Dill (bk. ii, chap, iii) ; also De Collegia, by Momm-
sen There is an excellent article in Macke's Bncyclopedia of
Freemasonry, and Gould, His. Masonry, vol. i, chap, i,

3 See Masonic Character of Roman Villa at Morton, by J. F.
Crease (A. Q. C., iii, 38-59).

THE COLLEGIA 8i

and more, his littleness and loneliness. This feel-
ing, together with the increasing specialization of
industry, begat a passion for association, and Col-
legia of many sorts were organized. Even a cas-
ual glance at the inscriptions, under the heading
Aries et OpiUcia, will show the enormous develop-
ment of skilled handicrafts, and how minute was
their specialization. Every trade soon had its secret
order, or union, and so powerful did they become
that»the enlperors found it necessary to abolish the
right of free association. Yet even such edicts,
though effective for a little time, were helpless as
against the universal craving for combination.
Ways were easily found whereby to evade the law,
which had exempted from its restrictions orders
consecrated by their antiquity or their religious
character. Most of the Collegia became funerary
and charitable in their labors, humble folk -seeking
to escape the dim, hopeless obscurity of plebeian life,
and the still more hopeless obscurity of death.
Pathetic beyond words are some of the inscriptions
telling of the horror and loneliness of the grave, of
the day when no kindly eye would read the forgot-
ten name, and no hand bring offerings of flowers.
Each collegium held memorial services, and marked
the tomb of its dead with the emblems of its trade :
if a baker, with a loaf of bread ; if a builder, with a
square, compasses, and the level.

82

THE BUILDERS

From the first the Colleges of Architects seem to
hav6 enjoyed special privileges and exemptions, ow-
ing to the value of tlieir service to the state, and
while we do not find them called Free-masons they
were such in law and fact long before they wore
the name. They were permitted to have their own
constitutions and regulations, both secular and re-
ligious. In form, in officers, in emblems a Roman
Collegium resembled very much a modern Masonic
Lodge. For one thing, no College could consist of
less than three persons, and so rigid was this rule
that the saying, “three make a college,” became a
maxim of law. Each College was presided over by
a Magister, or Master, with two decwiones, or war-
dens, each of whom extended the commands of the
Master to “the brethren of his column.” There were
a secretary, a treasurer, and a keeper of archives,
and, as the colleges were in part religious and
usually met near some temple, there was a sacerdos,
or, as we would say, a priest, or chaplain. The
members were of three orders, not unlike appren-
tices, fellows, and masters, or colleagues. What
ceremonies of initiation were used we do not know,
but that they were of a religious nature seems cer-
tain, as each College adopted a patron deity from
among the many then worshiped. Also, as the
Mysteries of Isis and Mithra ruled the Roman

THE COLLEGIA 83

world by turns, the ancient drama of eternal life
was never far away.

Of the emblems of the Collegia, it is enough to
say that here again we find the simple tools of the
builder used as teachers of truth for life and hope in
death. Upon a number of sarcophagi, still extant,
we find carved the square, the compasses, the cube,
the plummet, the circle, and always the level.
There is, besides, the famous. Collegium uncovered
at the excavation of Pompeii in 1878, having been
buried under the ashes and lava of Mount Vesuvius
since the year 79 A. D, It stood near the Tragic
Theater, not far from the Temple of Isis, and by its
arrangement, with two columns in front and inter-
laced triangles on the walls, was identified as an
ancient lodge room. Upon a pedestal in the room
was found a rare bit of art, unique in design and
exquisite in execution, now in the National Museum
at Naples. It is described by S. R. Eorbes, in his
Rambles in Naples, as follows;

It is a mosaic table of square shape, fixed in a strong
wooden frame. The ground is of grey green stone, in
the middle of which is a human skull, made of white,
grey, and black colors. In appearance the skull is quite
natural. The eyes, nostrils, teeth, ears, and coronal are
all well executed. Above the skull is a level of colored
wood, the points being of brass ; and from the top to the
point, by a white thread, is suspended a plumb-line. Be-

84 THE BUILDERS

low the skull is a wheel of six spokes, and on the upper rim
of the wheel there is a butterfly with wings of red, edged
with yellow ; its eyes blue. . • On the left is an upright
spear, resting on the ground; from this there hangs, at-
tached to a golden cord, a garment of scarlet, also a
purple robe; whilst the upper part of the spear is sur-
rounded by a white braid of diamond pattern. To the
right is a gnarled thorn stick, from which hangs a coarse,
shaggy piece of cloth in yellow, grey, and brown colors,
tied with a ribbon; and above it is a leather knap-
sack. . . Evidently this work of art, by its composi-
tion, is mystical and symbolical.

No doubt; and for those who know the meaning
of these emblems there is a feeling of kinship with
those men, long since fallen into dust, who gathered
about such an altar. They wrought out in this work
of art their vision of the old-worn pilgrim way of
life, with its vicissitude and care, the level of mor-
tality to which all are brought at last by death, and
the winged, fluttering hope of man. Always a jour-
ney with its horny staff and wallet, life is sometimes
a battle needing a spear, but for him who walks up-
rightly by the plumb-line of rectitude, there is a true
and victorious hope at the end.

Of wounds and sore defeat
I made my battle stay.

Winged sandals for my feet
I wove of my delay.

THE COEEEGIA

85

Of weariness and fear
I made a shouting spear,

Of loss and doubt and dread
And swift on-coming doom
I made a helmet for my head,

And a waving plume.

Ill

Christianity, whose Founder was a Carpenter,
made a mighty appeal to the working classes of
Rome. As Deissmann and Harnack have shown,
the secret of its expansion in the early years was
that it came down to the man in the street with its
message of hope and joy. Its appeal was hardly
heard in high places, but it was welcomed by the
men who were weary and heavy ladened. Among
the Collegia it made rapid progress, its Saints tak-
ing the place of pagan deities as patrons, and its
spirit of love welding men into closer, truer union.
When Diocletian determined to destroy Christian-
ity, he was strangely lenient and patient with the
Collegia, so many of whose members were of that
faith. Not until they refused to make a statue of
JEsculapius did he vow vengeance and turn on them,
venting his fury. In the persecution that followed
four Master Masons and one humble apprentice suf-
fered cruel torture and death, but they became the

86

THE BUILDERS

Four Crowned Martyrs, the story of whose heroic
fidelity unto death haunted the legends of later
times.^ They were the patron saints alike of Lom-
bard and Tuscan builders, and, later, of the work-
ing Masons of the Middle Ages, as witness the poem
in their praise in the oldest record of the Craft, the
Regius MS.

With the breaking up of the College of Architects
and their expulsion from Rome, we come upon a
period in which it is hard to follow their path. Hap-
pily the task has been made less baffling by recent
research, and if we are unable to trace them all the
way much light has been let into the darkness.
Hitherto there has been a hiatus also in the history
of architecture between the classic art of Rome,
which is said to have died when the Empire fell to

^ Their names were Claudius, Nicostratus, Simphorianus, Cas-
torius, and Simplicius, l^ater their bodies were brought from Rome
to Toulouse where they were placed in a chapel erected in their
honor in the church of St Sernin {Martyrology, by I^u Saussay).
They became patron saints of Masons in Germany, France, and
England (A, Q, C„ xii, 196). In a fresco on the walls of the church
of St Lawrence at Rotterdam, partially preserved, they are painted
with compasses and trowel in hand. With them, however, is an-
other figure, clad In oriental robe, also holding compasses, but with
a royal, not a martyr's, crown. Is he Solomon? 'l^o else can he
be? The fresco dates from 1641, and was painted by F, Wounters
(^. Q. Cj *ii, 202). Even so, those humble workmen, faithful to
their faith, became saints of the church, and reign with Solomon!
Once the fresco was whitewashed, but the coating fell off and
they stood forth with compasses and trowel as before.

THE COLLEGIA

' ^ 7 ,

pieces, and the rise of Gothic art. Just so, in the
story of the builders one finds a gap of like length,
between the Collegia of Rome and the cathedral
artists. While the gap cannot, as yet, be perfectly
bridged, much has been done to that end by Eeader
Scott in The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a
Great Masonic Guild — a book itself a work of art
as well as of fine scholarship. Her thesis is that the
missing link is to be found in the Magistri Comaci-
ni, a guild of architects who, on the break-up of the
Roman Empire, fled to Comacina, a fortified island
in Eake Como, and there kept alive the traditions of
classic art during the Dark Ages ; that from them
were developed in direct descent the various styles
of Italian architecture ; and that, finally, they car-
ried the knowledge and practice of architecture and
sculpture into France, Spain, Germany, and Eng-
land. Such a thesis is difficult, and, from its nature,
not susceptible of absolute proof, but the writer
makes it as certain as anything can well be.

While she does not positively affirm that the Co-
macine Masters were the veritable stock from which
the Freemasonry of the present day sprang, "we
may admit,” she says, "that they were the link be-
tween the classic Collegia and all other art and
trade Guilds of the Middle Ages. They were Free-
masons because they were builders of a privileged

88

THE BUHvDERS

class, absolved from taxes and servitude, and free
to travel about in times of feudal bondage.” The
name Eree-mason — Libera muratori — may not
actually have been used thus early, but the Coma-
cines were in fact free builders long before the name
was employed — free to travel from place to place,
as we see from their migrations; free to fix their
own prices, while other workmen were bound to
feudal lords, or by the Statutes of Wages. The au-
thor quotes in the original Latin an Edict of the
Lombard King Rotharis, dated November 22, 643,
in which certain privileges are confirmed to the
Magistri Comacini and their colligantes. From this
Edict it is clear that it is no new order that is al-
luded to, but an old and powerful body of Masters
capable of acting as architects, with men who ex-
ecuted work under them. For the Comacines were
not ordinary workmen, but artists, including archi-
tects, sculptors, painters, and decorators, and if af-
finities of st^le left in stone be adequate evidence, to
them were due the changing forms of architecture
in Europe during the cathedral-building period.
Everywhere they left their distinctive impress in a
way so unmistakable as to leave tio doubt.

Under Charlemagne the Comacines began their
many migrations, and we find them following the
missionaries of the church into remote places, from

THE COEEEGIA

89

Sicily to Britain, building churches. When Au-
gustine went to convert the British, the Comacines
followed to provide shrines, and Bede, as early as
674? in mentioning that builders were sent for from
Gaul to build the church at Wearmouth, uses phras-
es and words found in the Edict of King Rotharis.
Eor a long time the changes in style of architecture,
appearing simultaneously everywhere over Europe,
from Italy to England, puzzled students.^ Eurther
knowledge of this powerful and widespread order
explains it. It also accounts for the fact that no in-
dividual architect can be named as the designer of
any of the great cathedrals. Those cathedrals were
the work, not of individual artists, but of an order
who planned, built, and adorned them. In 1355 the
painters of Siena seceded, as the German Masons
did later, and the names of individual artists who
worked for fame and glory begin to appear; but
up to that time the Order was supreme. Artists
from Greece and Asia Minor, driven from their
homes, took refuge with the Comacines, and Leader
Scott finds in this order a possible link, by tradition
at least, with the temple of Solomon. At any rate,
all through the Dark Ages the name and fame of
the Hebrew king lived in the minds of th^ builders.

An inscribed stone, dating from 712, shows that

1 History of Middle Ages, Hallatn, vol. ii, 547*

90

THE BUIEDERS

the Comacine Guild was organized as Magistri and
Discipulij under a Gastaldo, or Grand Master, the
very same terms as were kept in the lodges later.
Moreover, they called their meeting places loggia,
a long list of which the author recites from the
records of various cities, giving names of officers,
and, often, of members. They, too, had their mas-
ters and wardens, their oaths, tokens, grips, and
passwords which formed a bond of union stronger
than legal ties. They wore white aprons and gloves,
and revered the Eour Crowned Martyrs of the Or-
der. Square, compasses, level, plumb-line, and arch
appear among their emblems. “King Solomon’s
Knot” was one of their symbols, and the endless,
interwoven cord, symbol of Eternity which has
neither beginning nor end, was another. Later,
however, the Lion’s Paw seems to have become
their chief emblem. From illustrations given by the
author they are shown in their regalia, with apron
and emblems, clad as the keepers of a great art and
teaching of which they were masters.

Here, of a truth, is something more than proph-
ecy, and those who have any regard for facts will
not again speak lightly of an order having such an-
cestors as the great Comacine Masters. Had Fer-
gusson known their story, he would not have paused
in his History of Architecture to belittle the Free-

THE COEEEGIA

91

masons as incapable of designing a cathedral, while
puzzling the while as to who did draw the plans for
those dreams of beauty and prayer. Hereafter, if
any one asks to know who uplifted those massive
piles in which was portrayed the great drama of
mediaeval worship, he need not remain imcertain.
With the decline of Gothic architecture the order of
Free-masons also suffered decline, as we shall see,
but did not cease to exist — continuing its symbolic
tradition amidst varying, and often sad, vicissitude
until 1717, when it became a fraternity teaching
spiritual faith by allegory and moral science by sym-
bols.

NcOT— W hatever the origin of Freemasonry, its practical value
remains the same. The Nile blessed Egypt whether the origin of it
was the Mountains of the Moon, or a I^ke in Central Africa; so of
the fertilizing stream of Masonry. None fhe less we should go as
far hack as we can in search of the source, and so far we have been
picking our way amidst many cults and rites in quest of hints and
prophecies of the Craft. Naturally the record is less definite than
in the pages following, but it has its value and much remains to be
explored in the Museum of Antiquity. Meanwhile we may observe;

I — The Dionysiac Artificers are the first order of architects, of
which we have record, who were a secret order practicing the rites
of the Mysteries. Prof. Robinson writes; **We know that the
Dionysiacs of Ionia were a great corporation of architects and
engineers, who undertook, and even monopolized, the building of
temples and stadia, precisely as the fraternity of Freemasons monop*
olized tl^ building of cathedrals and conventual churches In the
Middle Ages. Indeed, the Dionysiacs resembled in many respects
the mystic fraternity now called Freemasons. They allowed no
strangers to interfere in their employment; they recognized each

92 THE BUILDERS

other by signs and tokens; they professed certain cnysterious doc-
trines under the tutulage of Bacchus, (who represented the Sun, and
was the outward symbol of One God, so that the worship of the
Dionysiacs resolved itself into a worship of the One God) to whom
they built a magnificent temple at Teos, where they celebrated Ida
mysteries at solemn festivals, and they called all other men profane
because not admitted to their mysteries/' X^rticle on the Arch in
Brrmster's Edinburgh Encyclopedia.)

II— While the contention of I<eader Scott that the Comacine
Masters are the real ancestors of Freemasonry has not yet been
entirely established and may never be put beyond question, it is
believed that it puts us on track of the truth. Further researches
by W. Ravenscroft, in his essay on The Comadnes^ Their Prede^
cessors and Snccessorsf tend to confirm it, albeit we may not be able
to accept his theory about their predecessors. Still, the investiga-
tion IS not yet adjourned, and we may wisely wait its further results.
It does offer an explanation, first, of the building of the cathedrals,
which could not have been erected by Guild-masons; and the Co-
macines did have the forms and symbols of Masonry very like what
they are today. They were an order of Artists, an aristocracy, to
be sure, but an aristocracy of service, of talent, such as Carlyle and
Ruskin would have admired. They were also democratic, because
industry and merit enabled a worthy workman to attain the highest
honors. In spirit, therefore, as well as in form and symbol, they
were Masonic. (See a noble passage in Michelet’s History of
France on the spirit of cathedral Masonry.)

IH— in the following pages emphasis is laid upon the historical
development of Masonry, it is because this is a book of history.^
Many mystical influences entered into the making of Masonry, but
thQT are of a kind which cannot be traced historically or estimated
accurately. Traces of Gnosticism, of Mithraism, are found, rem-
nants of rites long forgotten; and the impress of the Kabalah'is
unmistakable, as Bro. Waite has shown in his lecture on Some Deep-
er Aspects of Masonic Symbolism (see also “Freemasonry Illustrated
by the Kabalah,” by W. W. Westcott. A. Q. C*. i, 55). Iwhas been
deemed better, in a book of Introduction, to fix attention on the
historical aspects of Craft, leaving the student free to follow further
as his inclination and studies may direct.

Part II— History

FREE-MASONS

The curious history of Freemasonry has un~
fortunately been treated only by its panegyrists
or calumniators, both equally mendacious^ I do
not wish to pry into the mysteries of the craft;
but it would be interesting to know more of their
history during the period when they were liter--
ally arcl&tectSn They are charged by an act of
Parliament with hxmg the price of their labor in
their annual chapters, contrary to the statute of
laborers, and such chapters were consequently
prohibited. This is their first persecution; they
hwve since undergone others, and are perhaps re^
served for sHll more. It is remarkable, that
Masons were never legally incorporated, like
other traders; their bond of union being stronger
than any charter,

— Hsnry The Middle Ages

CHAPTER I
Pree-Masons
I

F rom the foregoing pages it must be evident
that Masonry, as we find it in the Middle Ages,
was not a novelty. Already, if we accept its own
records, it was hoary with age, having come down
from a far past, bringing with it a remarkable de-
posit of legendary lore. Also, it had in its keeping
the same simple, eloquent emblems which, as we
have seen, are older than the oldest living religion,
which it received as an inheritance and has trans-
mitted as a treasure. Whatever we may think of
the legends of Masonry, as recited in its oldest docu-
ments, its symbols, older than the order itself, link
it with the earliest thought and faith of the race.
No doubt those emblems lost some of their luster in
the troublous time of transition we are about to tra-
verse, but their beauty never wholly faded, and they
had only to be touched to shine.

If not the actual successors of the Roman College
of Architects, the great order of Comacine Masters
was founded upon its ruins, and continued its tra-

98

THE BUIEDERS

dition both of sybolism and of art. Returning to
Rome after the death of Diocletian, we find them
busy there under Constantine and Theodosius ; and
from remains recently brought to knowledge it is
plain that their style of building at that time was
very like that of the churches built at Hexham and
York in England, and those of the Ravenna, also
nearly contemporary. They may not have been ac-
tually called Free-masons as early as Leader Scott
insists they were/ but they were free in fact, travel-
ing far and near where there was work to do, fol-
lowing the missionaries of the Church as far as
England. When there was need for the name free-
masons, it was easily suggested by the fact that the
cathedral-builders were quite distinct from the
Guild-masons, the one being a universal order
whereas the other was local and restricted. Older
than Guild-masonry, the order of the cathedral-
builders was more powerful, more artistic, and, it
may be added, more religious ; and it is from this
order that the Masonry of today is descended.

• Since the story of the Comacine Masters has come
to light, no doubt any longer remains that during
the building period the order of Masons was at the
height of its influence and power. At that time the
building art stood above all other arts, and made the
other arts bow to it, commanding the services of the
^ The Cathedral Builders^ chap, i*

I^RKE-MASONS

99

most brilliant intellects and of the greatest artists
of the age. Moreover, its symbols were wrought in-
to stone long before they were written on parch-
ment, if indeed they were ever recorded at all. Ef-
forts have been made to rob those old masters of
their honor as the designers of the cathedrals, but it
is in vain.^ Their monuments are enduring and
still tell the story of their genius and art. High up-
on the cathedrals they left cartoons in stone, of
which Eindel gives a list,* portraying with search-

honor due to the original founders of these edifices i$
almost invariably transferred to the ecclesiastics under 'whose pat-
ronage they rose, rather than to the skill and design of the Mas-
ter Mason, or professional architect, because the only historians
were monks. . . They were probably not so well versed in
geometrical science as the Master Masons, for mathematics formed
a part of monastic learning in a very limited degree.” — James
Dallaway, Architecture in Ungland ; and his words are the more
weighty for that he is not a Mason.

^History of Masonry, In the St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremburg,
is a carving in stone showing a nun in the embrace of a monk. In
Strassburg a hog and a goat may be seen carrying a sleeping fox
as a sacred relic, in advance a bear with a cross and a wolf with a
taper. An ass is reading mass at an altar. In Wurzburg Cathedral
are the pillars of Boaz and Jachin, and in the altar of the Church
of Doberan, in Mecklenburg, placed as Masons use them, and a
most significant scene in which priests are turning a mill grinding
out dogmatic doctrines; and at the bottom the Lord’s Supper in
which the Apostles are sho'wn in well-known Masonic attitudes.
In the Cathedral of Brandenburg a fox in priestly robes is preaching
to a flock of geese; and in the Minster at Berne the Pope is placed
among those who are lost in perdition. These were bold strokes
which even heretics hardly dared to indulge in.

lOO

THE BUILDERS

ing satire abuses current in the Church. Such fig-
ures and devices would not have been tolerated but
for the strength of the order, and not even then had
the Church known what they meant to the adepts.

History, like a mirage, lifts only a part of the
past into view, leaving much that we should like to
know in oblivion. At this distance the Middle Ages
wear an aspect of smooth uniformity of faith and
opinion, but that is only one of the many illusions
of time by which we are deceived. What looks like
uniformity was only conformity, and underneath its
surface there was almost as much variety of thought
as there is today, albeit not so freely expressed.
Science itself, as well as religious ideas deemed
heretical, sought seclusion ; but the human mind was
alive and active none the less, and a great secret or-
der like Masonry, enjoying the protection of the
Church, yet independent of it, invited freedom of
thought and f aith,^ The Masons, by the very nature
of their art, came into contact with all classes of
men, and they had opportunities to know the defects

^ History of Masonry, by Steinbrenner, chap iv There were, in-
deed, many secret societies in the Middle Ages, such as the Cathar-
ists, Albigenses, Waldenses, and others, whose initiates and adher-
ents traveled through all Europe, forming new communities and
making proselytes not only among the masses, but also among
nobles, and even among the monks, abbots, and bishops. Occultists,
Alchemists, Kabbalists, all wrought in secrecy, keeping their flame
aglow under the crust of conformity*

FREE-MASONS

lOl

of the Church. Far ahead of the masses and most
of the clergy in education, in their travels to and
fro, not only in Europe, but often extending to the
far East, they became familiar with widely-differ-
ing religious views. They had learned to practice
toleration, and their Lodges became a sure refuge
for those who were persecuted for the sake of opin-
ion by bigoted fanaticism.

While, as an order, the Comacine Masters served
the Church as builders, the creed required for ad-
mission to their fraternity was never narrow, and,
as we shall see, it became every year broader. Un-
less this fact be kept in mind, the influence of the
Church upon Masonry, which no one seeks to mini-
fy, may easily be exaggerated. Not until cathedral
building began to decline by reason of the impover-
ishment of the nations by long wars, the dissolution
of the monasteries, and the advent of Puritanism,
did the Church greatly influence the order; and not
even then to the extent of diverting it from its orig-
inal and unique mission. Other influences were at
work betimes, such as the persecution of the Knights
Templars and the tragic martyrdom of De Molai,
making themselves felt,^ and Masonry began to be
suspected of harboring heresy. So tangled were the

^Realities of Masonry, by Blake (chap. ii). While the theory
of the descent of Masonry from the Order of the Temple is unten^
able, a connection between the two societies, in the sense in which

102

THE BUILDERS

tendencies of that period that they are not easily fol-
lowed, but the fact emerges that Masonry rapidly
broadened until its final break with the Church.
Hardly more than a veneer, by the time of the Ger-
man Reformation almost every vestige of the im-
press of the Church had vanished never to return.
Critics of the order have been at pains to trace this
tendency, not knowing, apparently, that by so doing
they only make more emphatic the chief glory of
Masonry.

II

Unfortunately, as so often happens, no records of
old Craft-masonry, save those wrought into stone,
were made until the movement had begun to de-
cline; and for that reason such documents as have
come down to us do not show it at its best. Never-
theless, they range ovet a period of more than four
centuries, and are justly held to be the title deeds
of the Order. Turning to these Old Charges

ati artist may be said to be connected with bis employer, is more
than probable; and a similarity may be traced between the ritual
of reception in the Order of the Temple and that used by Masons,
but that of the Temple was probably derived from, or suggested
by, ^at of the Masons; or both may have come from an original
source further back. That the Order of the Temple, as such, did
no^ actually coalesce with the Masons seems clear, but many of its
members sought refuge under the Masonic apron (History of Pres-
masonry and Concordant Orders, by Hughan and Stillson).

FREE-MASONS

103

and Constitutions^ as they are called, we find a body
of quaint and curious writing, both in poetry and
prose, describing the Masonry of the late cathedral-
building period, with glimpses at least of greater
days of old. Of these, there are more than half a
hundred — seventy-eight, to be exact — most of
which have come to light since i860, and all of them,
it would seem, copies of documents still older. Nat-
urally they have suffered at the hands of unskilled
or unlearned copyists, as is evident from errors, em-
bellishments, and interpolations. They were called
Old Charges because they contained certain rules as
to conduct and duties which, in a bygone time, were
read or recited to a newly admitted member of the
craft. While they differ somewhat in details, they
relate substantially the same legend as to the origin
of the order, its early history, its laws and regula-
tions, usually beginning with an invocation and end-
ing with an Amen.

1 Every elaborate History of Masonry — as, for example, that of
Gould — reproduces these old documents in full or in digest, with
exhaustive analyses of and commentaries upon them. Such a task
obviously does not come within the scope of the present study.
One of the best brief comparative studies of the Old Charges is an
essay by W. H. Upton, “The True Text of the Book of Constitu-
tions, “ in that it applies approved methods of historical criticism
to all of them (A, Q, C., vii, 119). See also Masonic Sketches and
ReprintSt by Hughan. No doubt these Old Charges are familiar,
or should be familiar, to every intelligent member of the order,
as a man knows the deeds of his estate.

104

THE BUILDERS

Only a brief account need here be given of the
dates and characteristics of these documents, of the
two oldest especially, with a digest of what they
have to tell us, first, of the Legend of the order;
second, its early History; and third, its Moral teach-
ing, its workings, and the duties of its members.
The first and oldest of the records is known as the
Regius MS which, owing to an error of David Cas-
ley who in his catalogue of the MSS in the King’s
Library marked it A Poem of Moral Duties,
was overlooked until James Halliwell discovered
its real nature in 1839. Although not a Mason,
Halliwell was attracted by the MS and read an es-
say on its contents before the Society of Antiqua-
rians, after which he issued two editions bearing
date of 1840 and 1844. Experts give it date back
to 1390, that is to say, fifteen years after the first
recorded use of the name Pree-taason in the history
of the Company of Masons of the City of London,
^ 1375 '"

More poetical in spirit than in form, the old man-
uscript begins by telling of the number of unem
ployed in early days and the necessity of finding

1 The Hole Craft and Pellowship of Masonry, by Conder. Also
exhaustive essays by Conder and Speth, A. Q. C., ix^ 29; x, 10.
Too much, it seems to me, has been made of both the name and
the date, since the fact was older than either. Findel finds the name
J^retf-mason as e&rly as 1212, and Leader Scott goes still further
back; but the fact may be traced back to the Roman Collegia.

FREE-MASONS 105

work, “that they myght gete there lyvyngs therby.”
Euclid was consulted, and recommended the “onest
craft of good masonry,” and the origin of the order
is found “yn Egypte lande.” Then, by a quick shift,
we are landed in England “yn tyme of good Kinge
Adelstonus day,” who is said to have called an as-
sembly of Masons, when fifteen articles and as many
points were agreed upon as rules of the craft, each
point being duly described. The rules resemble the
Ten Commandments in an extended form, closing
with the legend of the Four Crowned Martyrs, as
an incentive to fidelity. Then the writer takes up
again the question of origins, going back this time
to the days of Noah and the Flood, mentioning the
tower of Babylon and the great skill of Euclid, who
is said to have commenced “the syens seven.” The
seven sciences are then named, to-wit. Grammar,
Bogie, Rhetoric, Music, Astronomy, Arithmetic,
Geometry, and each explained. Rich reward is held
out to those who use the seven sciences aright, and
the MS proper closes with the benediction:

Amen 1 Amen ! so mote it be 1

So say we all for Charity.

There follows a kind of appendix, evidently added
by a priest, consisting of one hundred lines in which
pious exhortation is mixed with instruction in eti-
quette, such as lads and even men unaccustomed to

io6 THE BUIIvDERS

polite society and correct deportment would need.
These lines were in great part extracted from In-
structions for Parish Priests, by Mirk, a manual in
use at the time. The whole poem, if so it may be
called, is imbued with the spirit of freedom, of glad-
ness, of social good will; so much so, that both Gould
and Albert Pike think it points to the existence of
symbolic Masonry at the date from which it speaks,
and may have been recited or sung by some club
commemorating the science, but not practicing the
art, of Masonry. They would find intimation of the
independent existence of speculative Masonry thus
early, in a society from whom all but the memory
or tradition of its ancient craft had departed. One
hesitates to differ with writers so able and distin-
guished, yet this inference seems far-fetched, if not
forced. Of the existence of symbolic Masonry at
that time there is no doubt, but of its independent
existence it is not easy to find even a hint in this old
poem. Nor would the poem be suitable for a mere
social, or even a symbolic guild, whereas the spirit
of genial, joyous comradeship which breathes
through it is of the very essence of Masonry, and
has ever been present when Masons meet.

Next in order of age is the Cooke MS, dating
from the early part of the fifteenth century, and first
published in i86i. If we apply the laws of higher-

FREE-MASONS 107

criticism to this old document a number of things
appear, as obvious as they are interesting. Not on-
ly is it a copy of an older record, like all the MSS
we have, but it is either an effort to join two docu-
ments together, or else the first part must be re-
garded as a long preamble to the manuscript which
forms the second part. For the two are quite un-
like in method and style, the first being diffuse, with
copious quotations and references to authorities,^
while the second is simple, direct, unadorned, and
does not even allude to the Bible. Also, it is evi-
dent that the compiler, himself a Mason, is trying
to harmonize two traditions as to the origin of the
order, one tracing it through Egypt and the other
through the Hebrews ; and it is hard to tell which
tradition he favors most. Hence a duplication of the
traditional history, and an odd mixture of names
and dates, often, indeed, absurd, as when he makes
Euclid a pupil of Abraham. What is clear is that,
having found an old Constitution of the Craft, he
thought to write a kind of commentary upon it,
adding proofs and illustrations of his own, though
he did not manage his materials very successfully.

1 He refers to Herodotus as the Master of History; quotes from
the Polychronicoftt written by a Benedictine monk who died in 1360;
from De Imagine Mnndit Isodorus, and frequently from the Bible*
Of more than ordinaiy learning for his day and station, he did not
escape a certain air of pedantry in his use of authorities.

io 8 THE BUIEDERS

After his invocation,^ the writer begins with a
list of the Seven Sciences, giving quaint definitions
of each, but in a different order from that recited
in the Regius Poem; and he exalts Geometry above
all the rest as “the first cause and foundation of all
crafts and sciences.” Then follows a brief sketch
of the sons of Eamech, much as we find it in the
book of Genesis which, like the old MS we are here
studying, was compiled from two older records : the
one tracing the descent from Cain, and the other
from Seth. Jabal and Jubal, we are told, inscribed
their knowledge of science and handicraft on two
pillars, one of marble, the other of lateres; and af-
ter the flood one of the pillars was found by Hermes,
and the other by P3d:hagoras, who taught the
sciences they found written thereon. Other MSS
give Euclid the part here assigned to Hermes. Sure-
ly this is all fantastic enough, but the blending of
the names of Hermes, the “father of Wisdom,” who
is so supreme a figpire in the Eg^tian Mysteries,
and P3rthagoras who used numbers as spiritual em-
blems, with old Hebrew history, is significant. At

^ These invocations vary in their phraseology, some hearing more
visibly than others the mark of the Church. Toulmin Smith, in his
BngUsh Guilds, notes the fact that the form of the invocations of
the Masons "differs strikingly from that of most other Guilds. In
almost every other case, God the Tather Almighty would seem to
have been forgotten." But Masons never forgot the corner-stone
upon which their order and Its teachings rest ; not for ja day.

FREE-MASONS 109

any rate, by this route the record reaches Egypt
where, like the Regius Poeniy it locates the origin of
Masonry, In thus ascribing the origin of Geometry
to the Egyptians the writer was but following a tra-
dition that the Eg3nptians were compelled to invent
it in order to restore the landmarks effaced by the
inundations of the Nile; a tradition confirmed by
modern research.

Preceding, the compiler tells us that during their
sojourn in Egypt the Hebrews learned the art and
secrets of Masonry, which they took with them to
the promised land. Long years are rapidly sketch-
ed, and we come to the days of David, who is said to
have loved Masons well, and to have given them
^'wages nearly as they are now.” There is but a
meager reference to the building of the Temple of
Solomon, to which is added: “In other chronicles
and old books of Masonry, it is said that Solomon
confirmed the charges that David had given to Ma-
sons ; and that Solomon taught them their usages
diflFering but slightly from the customs now in use.”
While allusion is made to the master-artist of the
temple, his name is not mentioned, excepi in dis^
guise. Not one of the Old Charges of the order ev-
er makes use of his name, but always employs some
device whereby to conceal it.^ Why so, when the

I Such names as Aynone, Aymon, Ajuon, CynoUj Amon» Anon,
Annon, and Benaim are used, deliberately, it would seem, and of

B

no

THE BUILDERS

name was well known, written in the Bible which
lay upon the altar for all to read? Why such re-
luctance, if it be not that the name and the legend
linked with it had an esoteric meaning, as it most
certainly did have long before it was wrought into
a drama? At this point the writer drops the old
legend and traces the Masons into Erance and Eng-
land, after the manner of the Regius MS, but with
more detail. Having noted these items, he returns
to Euclid and brings that phase of the tradition up
to the advent of the order into England, adding, in
conclusion, the articles of Masonic law agreed upon
at an early assembly, of which he names nine, in-
stead of the fifteen recited in the Regius Poem.

What shall we say of this Legend, with its re-
curring and insistent emphasis upon the antiquity
of the order, and its linking of Egypt with Israel?
For one thing, it explodes the fancy that the idea
of the symbolical significance of the building of the
Temple of Solomon originated with, or was suggest-
ed by, Bacon’s New Atlantis. Here is a body of tra-
dition uniting the Eg5q)tian Mysteries with the He-
brew history of the Temple in a manner unmistak-
able. Wherefore such names as Hermes, Pythag-

set design. The Inigo Jones MS uses the Bible name, but, though
dated 1607, it has been shown to be apocryphal. See Gould’s His--
ioryt appendix. Also BulleUn of Supreme Council S. J., U S.
(vii, 200), that the Strassburg builders pictured the legend in stone.

FREE-MASONS

III

eras, and Euclid, and how did they come into the
old craft records if not through the Comacine art-
ists and scholars? With the story of that great
order before us, much that has hitherto been ob-
scure becomes plain, and we recognize in these Old
Charges the inaccurate and perhaps faded tradition
of a lofty symbolism, an authentic scholarship, and
an actual history. As Leader Scott observes, after
reciting the old legend in its crudest form:

The significant point is that all these names and Mch
sonic emblems point to something real which existed in
some long-past time, and, as regards the organisation
and nomenclature, we find the whole thing in Us vital
and actual working form in the Comacine Guild}

Of interest here, as a kind of bridge between old
legend and the early history of the order in Eng-
land, and also as a different version of the legend
itself, is another document dating far back. There
was a MS discovered in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford about 1696, supposed to have been written
in the year 1436, which purports to be an examina-
tion of a Mason by King Henry VI, and is allowed
by all to be genuine. Its title rtms as follows:
“Certain questions with answers to the same con-
cerning the mystery of masonry written by King
Henry the Sixth and faithfully copied by me, John
^ The Cathedral Butlderst bk, i, chap. i.

TI2

THE BUILDERS

Laylande, antiquarian, hy command of his high'-
ness/* Written in quaint old English, it would
doubtless be unintelligible to all but antiquarians,
but it reads after this fashion :

What mote it be? — It is the knowledge of nature, and
the power of its various operations ; particularly the skill
of reckoning, of weights and measures, of constructing
buildings and dwellings of all kinds, and the true man-
ner of forming all things for the use of man.

Where did it begin? — It began with the first men of
the East, who were before the first men of the West, and
coming with it, it hath brought all comforts to the wild
and comfortless.

Who brought it to the West? — The Phoenicians who,
being great merchants, came first from the East into
Phoenicia, for the convenience of commerce, both East
and West by the Red and Mediterranean Seas.

How came it into England? — Pythagoras, a Grecian,
traveled to acquire knowledge in Egypt and Syria, and
in every other land where the Phoenicians had planted
Masonry; and gaining admittance into all lodges of
Masons, he learned much, and returned and dwelt in
Grecia Magna, growing and becoming mighty wise and
greatly renowned Here he formed a great lodge at
Crotona, and made many Masons, some of whom traveled
into Prance, and there made many more, from whence,
in process of time, the art passed into England.

Ill

With the conquest of Btitain by the Romans, the
Collegia, without which no Roman society was com-

FREE-MASONS

113

plete, made their advent into the island, traces of
their work remaining even to this day. Under the
direction of the mother College at Rome, the Brit-
ons are said to have attained to high degree of ex-
cellence as builders, so that when the cities of Gaul
and the fortresses along the Rhine were destroyed,
Chlorus, A. D. 298, sent to Britain for architects
to repair or rebuild them. Whether the Collegia
existed in Britain after the Romans left, as some
affirm, or were suppressed, as we know they were
on the Continent when the barbarians overran it,
is not clear. Probably they were destroyed, or
nearly so, for with the revival of Christianity in
598 A. D., we find Bishop Wilfred of York joining
with the Abbott of Wearmouth in sending to
France and Italy to induce Masons to return and
build in stone, as he put it, “after the Roman man-
ner.'' This confirms the Italian chroniclists who re-
late that Pope Gregory sent several of the fraternity
oiLiberi muratori with St. Augustine, as, later, they
followed St. Boniface into Germany.

Again, in 604, Augfustine sent the monk Pietro
back to Rome with a letter to the same Pontiff, beg-
ging him to send more architects and workmen,
which he did. As the Libert muratori were none
other than the Comacine Masters, it seems certain
that they were at work in England long h^ore the
period with which the Oi,d Charg:iSS begin their

THE BUILDERS

1 14

story of English Masonry.^ Among those sent by
Gregory was Paulinus, and it is a curious fact that
he is spoken of under the title of M agister, by which
is meant, no doubt, that he was a member of the
Comacine order, for they so described their mem-
bers ; and we know that many monks were enrolled
in their lodges, having studied the art of building
under their instruction. St. Hugh of Lincoln was
not the only Bishop who could plan a church, in-
struct the workman, or handle a hod. Only, it
must be kept in mind that these ecclesiastics who
became skilled in architecture were taught by the
Masons, and that it was not the monks, as some
seem to imagine, who taught the Masons their art.
Speaking of this early and troublous time, Giuseppe
Merzaria says that only one lamp remained alight,
making a bright spark in the darkness that extend-
ed over Europe:

It was from the Magistri Coinacini. Their respective
names are unknown, their individual works unspecialized,
but the breadth of their spirit might be felt all through
those centuries, and their name collectively is legion.
We may safely say that of all the works of art between

1 See the account of 'The Origin of Saxon Architecture,” in the
Cathedral Builders (bk. ii, chap, iii), written by Dr. W. M, Barnes
in England independently of the author who was living in Italy;
and it is significant that the facts led both of them to the same
conclusions. They show quite unmistakably that the Comacine
builders were in England as early as 600 A. D., both by documents
and by a comparative study of styles of architecture.

free-masons

IIS

A. D. 8CX) and 1000, the greater and better part are due
to that brotherhood — always faithful and often secret —
of the Magistri Comacini. The authority and judgment
of learned men justify the assertion.^

Among the learned men who agree with this
judgment are Kugler of Germany, Ramee of
France, and Selvatico of Italy, as well as Quatremal
de Quincy, in his Dictionary of Architecture, who,
in the article on the Comacine, remarks that “to
these men, who were both designers and executors,
architects, sculptors, and mosaicists, may be attrib-
uted the renaissance of art, and its propagation in
the southern countries, where it marched with
Christianity. Certain it is that we owe it to them,
that the heritage of antique ages was not entirely
lost, and it is only by their tradition and imitation
that the art of building was kept alive, producing
works which we still admire, and which become sur-
prising when we think of the utter ignorance of all
science in those dark ages.” The English writer,
Hope, goes further and credits the Comacine order
with being the cradle of the associations of Free-
masons, who were, he adds, "the first after Roman
times to enrich architecture with a complete and
well-ordinated system, which dominated wherever
tlie Eatin Church extended its influence.” * So

1 Maestri Comacini^ vol. i» chap, ii.

* Story of Architecture t chap, xxii.

THE BUILDERS

ii6

then, even if the early records of old Craft-masonry
in England are confused, and often confusing, we
are not left to grope our way from one dim tradi-
tion to another, having the history and monuments
of this great order which spans the whole period,
and links the fraternity of Free-masons with one
of the noblest chapters in the annals of art.

Almost without exception the Old Charges begin
their accoimt of Masonry in England at the time of
Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred the Great ; that
is, between 925 and 940. Of this prince, or knight,
they record that he was a wise and pacific ruler;
that "he brought the land to rest and peace, and
built many great buildings of castles and abbeys,
for he loved Masons well.” He is also said to have
called an assembly of Masons at which laws, rules,
and charges were adopted for the regulation of the
craft. Despite these specific details, the story of
Athelstan and St. Alban is hardly more than a
legend, albeit dating at no very remote epoch, and
well within the reasonable limits of tradition. Still,
so many difficulties beset it that it has baffled the
acutest critics, most of whom throw it aside.^ That

^ Gould, in his History of Masonry (i, 31, 65), rejects the legend
as having not the least foundation in fact, as indeed, he rejects al^
most everything that cannot prove itself in a court of law. For the
other side see a “Critical Examination of the Alban and Athelstan
Ecgends/' by C. C. Howard (A. Q, C., vii, 73). Meanwhile, Upton

FREE-MASONS

117

is, however, too summary a way of disposing of it,
since the record, though badly blurred, is obviously
trying to preserve a fact of importance to the order.
Usually the assembly in question is located crt
York, in the year 926, of which, however, no slight-
est record remains. Whether at York or else-
where, some such assembly must have been con-
voked, either as a civil function, or as a regular
meeting of Masons authorized by legal power for
upholding the honor of the craft; and its articles
became the laws of the order. It was probably a
civil assembly, a part of whose legislation was a
revised and approved code for the regulation of
Masons, and not unnaturally, by reason of its im-
portance to the order, it became known as a Masonic
assembly. Moreover, the Charge agreed upon was
evidently no ordinary charge, for it is spoken of as
“the Charge,” called by one MS “a deep charge for
the observation of such articles as belong to Mason-
ry,” and by another MS "a rule to be kept forever.”

points out that St. Alban was the name of a towHi not of a man,
and shows how the error may have crept into the record {A, Q,
vii, 119-131). ^he nature of the tradition, its details, its motive,
and the absence of any reason for fiction, should deter us from re-
jecting it. See two able articles, pro and con, by Begemann and
Spcth, entitled "The Assembly*’ (A. Q. C., vii). Older Masonic
writers, like Oliver and Mackey, accepted the York assembly as a
fact established {American Quarterly Review of Rreemasowry^ vol
i, 546; ii, 245).

ii8 THE BUILDERS

Other assemblies were held afterwards, either an-
nually or semi-annually, until the time of Inigo
Jones who, in 1607, became superintendent general
of royal buildings and at the same time head of the
Masonic order in England; and he it was who in-
stituted quarterly gatherings instead of the old an-
nual assemblies.

Writers not familiar with the facts often speak
of Freemasonry as an evolution from Guild-mason-
ry, but that is to err. They were never at any time
united or the same, though working almost side by
side through several centuries. Free-masons exist-
ed in large numbers long before any city gnild of
Masons was formed, and even after the Guilds be-
came powerful the two were entirely distinct. The
Guilds, as Hallam says,^ "were Fraternities by vol-
untary compact, to relieve each other in poverty,
and to protect each other from injury. Two essen-

'>■ History of the English Constitution, Of course tHe Quild
'was indigenous to almost every age and land^ from China to an-'
dent Rome (The Guilds of CAwia, by H. B. Morse), and they sur-
vive in the trade and labor unions of our day. The story of
Usk Guilds has been told by Toulmin Smith, and in the histories of
particular companies by Herbert and Hazlitt, leaving little for any
one to add. No doubt the Guilds were influenced by the Free-ma-
sons in respect of officers and emblems, and we know that some of
them, like the German Steinmetzen, attached moral meanings to
their working tools, and that others, like the French Companionage,
even held the legend of Hiram; but these did not make them Free-
masons. English writers like Speth go too far when they deny to

FREE-MASONS

119

tial characteristics belonged to them: the common
banquet, and the common purse. They had also, in
many instances, a religious and sometimes a secret
ceremonial to knit more firmly the bond of fidelity.
They readily became connected with the exercises
of trades, with training of apprentices, and the tra-
ditional rules of art.” Guild-masons, it may be
added, had many privileges, one of which was that
they were allowed to frame their own laws, and to
enforce obedience thereto. Each Guild had a
monopoly of the building in its city or town, except
ecclesiastical buildings, but with this went serious
restrictions and limitations. No member of a local
Guild could undertake work outside his town, but
had to hold himself in readiness to repair the castle
or town walls, whereas Free-masons journeyed the
length and breadth of the land wherever their labor
called them. Often the Free-masons, when at work
in a town, employed Guild-masons, but only for
rough work, and as such called them "rough-
masons.” No Guild-mason was admitted to the
order of Free-masons unless he displayed unusual
aptitude both as a workman and as a man of in-
tellect. Such as adhered only to the manual craft

the Steinmetzen any esoteric lore, and German scholars like Krause
and Findel are equally at fault in insisting that they were Free-
masons. (See essay by Speth, A, Q. C*., i, 17» and History of Ma-
sonry^ by Steinbrenner, chap, iv.)

120

THE BUILDERS

and cared nothing for intellectual aims, were per-
mitted to go back to the Guilds. For the Free-
masons, be it once more noted, were not only artists
doing a more difficult and finished kind of work, but
an intellectual order, having a great tradition of
science and symbolism which they gfuarded.

Following the Norman Conquest, which began in
1066, England was invaded by an army of ecclesi-
astics, and churches, monasteries, cathedrals, and
abbeys were commenced in every part of the coun-
try. Naturally the Free-masons were much in de-
mand, and some of them received rich reward for
their skill as architects — Robertus Cementarius, a
Master Mason employed at St. Albans in 1077, re-
ceiving a grant of land and a house in the town.^
In the reign of Henry II no less than one hundred
and fifty-seven religious buildings were founded in
England, and it is at this period that we begin to
see evidence of a new style of architecture — the
Gothic. Most of the great cathedrals of Europe
date from the eleventh century — the piety of the
world having been wrought to a pitch of intense ex-
citement by the expected end of all things, unac-
countably fixed by popular belief to take place in the

^ Notes on the Superintendents of BngHsh Buildings in the
Middle Ages, by Wyatt Papworth, Cementerius is also mentioned
in connection with the Salisbury Cathedrali again in his capacity as
a Master Mason.

FREE-MASONS

I2I

year one thousand. When the fatal year — and the
following one, which some held to be the real date for
the sounding of the last trumpet — passed without
the arrival of the dreaded catastrophe, the sense of
general relief found expression in raising magnifi-
cent temples to the glory of God who had mercifully
abstained from delivering all things to destruction.
And it was the order of Free-masons who made it
possible for men to “sing their souls in stone,” leav-
ing for the admiration of after times what Goethe
called the “frozen music” of the Middle Ages —
monuments of the faith and gratitude of the race
which adorn and consecrate the earth.

Little need be added to the story of Freemasonry
during the cathedral-building period; its monu-
pients are its best history, alike of its genius, its
faith, and its symbols — as witness the triangle and
the circle which form the keystone of the orna-
mental tracery of every Gothic temple. Masonry
was then at the zenith of its power, in its full splen-
dor, the Lion of the tribe of Judah its symbol,
strength, wisdom, and beauty its ideals ; its motto to
be faithful to God and the Government; its mission
to lend itself to the public good and fraternal char-
ity. Keeper of an ancient and high tradition, it
was a refuge for the oppressed, and a teacher of
art and morality to mankind. In layo, we find

122

THE BUILDERS

Pope Nicholas III confirming all the rights previ-
ously granted to the Free-masons, and bestowing on
them further privileges. Indeed, all the Popes up
to Benedict XII appear to have conceded marked
favors to the order, even to the length of exempting
its members from the necessity of observance of
the statutes, from municipal regulations, and from
obedience to royal edicts.

What wonder, then, that the Free-masons, ere
long, took Liberty for their motto, and by so doing
aroused the animosity of those in authority, as well
as the Church which they had so nobly served. Al-
ready forces were astir which ultimately issued in
the Reformation, and it is not surprising that a
great secret order was suspected of harboring men
and fostering influences sympathetic with the im-
pending change felt to be near at hand. As men
of the most diverse views, political and religious,
were in the lodges, the order began first to be ac-
cused of refusing to obey the law, and then to be
persecuted. In England a statute was enacted
against the Free-masons in 1356, prohibiting their
assemblies under severe penalties, but the law seems
never to have been rigidly enforced; though the
order suffered greatly in the civil commotions of the
period. However, with the return of peace after
the long War of the Roses, Freemasonry revived

FREE-MASONS

123

for a time, and regained much of its prestige, add-
ing to its fame in the rebuilding of London after
the fire, and in particular of St. Paul’s Cathedral.^

When cathedral-building ceased, and the demand
for highly skilled architects decreased, the order fell
into decline, but never at any time lost its identity,
its organization, and its ancient emblems. The
Masons’ Company of London, though its extant
records date only from 1620, is considered by its
historian, Conder, to have been established in 1220,
if not earlier, at which time there was great activ-
ity in building, owing to the building of London
Bridge, begun in 1176, and of Westminster Abbey
in 1221 ; thus reaching back into the cathedral peri-
od. At one time the Eree-masons seem to have
been stronger in Scotland than in England, or at
all events to have left behind more records — for
the minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh go bade to
1599, and the Schaw Statutes to an earlier date.

^ Hearing that the Masons had certain secrets that could -not be
revealed to her (for that she could not be Grand Master) Queen
Elizabeth sent an armed force to break up their annual Grand
Eodge at York, on St. John's Day, December 27, 1563, But Sir
Thomas Sackville took care to see that some of the men sent
were Free-masons, who, joining in the communication, made “a
very honorable report to the Queen, who never more attempted to
dislodge or disturb them ; but esteemed them a peculiar sort of men,,
that cultivated peace and friendship, arts and sciences, without
meddling in the affairs of Church or State" (^Book of ConsiititUonsj
by Anderson).

124

THE BUILDERS

Nevertheless, as the art of architecture declined
IMasonry declined with it, not a few of its members
identifying themselves with the Guilds of ordinary
“rough-masons,” whom they formerly held in con-
tempt; while others, losing sight of high aims,
turned its lodges into social clubs. Always, how-
ever, despite defection and decline, there were those,
as we shall see, who were faithful to the ideals of
the order, devoting themselves more and more to
its moral and spiritual teaching until what has come
to be known as “the revival of 1717.”

FELLOWCRAFTS

Noe person (of whot degree soever) shctlbee
accepted a Pree Mason, unless kee shall have a
lodge of -five Free Masons at least; whereof one
to be a master, or warden, of that limitt, or divi--
sion, wherein such Lodge shalbee kept, and an-
other of the trade of Pree Masonry,

That noe person shalbee accepted a Free
Mason, but such as are of able body, honest par-
e^vtage, good reputation, and observers of the
laws of the land.

That noe person shalbee accepted a Pree
Mason, or know the secrets of said Society, until
hee hath first taken the oath of secrecy hereafter
following: "J, A. B,, doe in the presence of
Almighty God, and my fellows, and brethren here
present, promise and declare, that 1 will not at
any time hereafter, by any act or circumstance
whatsoever, directly or indirectly, publish, dis-
cover, reveal, or make known any of the secrets,
privileges, or counsels, of the fraternity or fel-
lowship of Pree Masonry, which at this time, or
any time hereafter, shalbee made knozvn unto
mee soe helpe mee God, and the holy contents of
this booke** — Hari^eian MS, 1600-1650

CHAPTER II

Pellowcrafts

1

H aving followed the Eree-masons over a long
period of history, it is now in order to give
some account of the ethics, organization, laws, em-
blems, and workings of their lodges. Such a study
is at once easy and difficult by turns, owing to the
mass of material, and to the further fact that in
the nature of things much of the work of a secret
order is not, and has never been, matter for record.
By this necessity, not a little must remain obscure,
but it is hoped that even those not of the order may
derive a definite notion of the principles and prac-
tices of the old Craft-masonry, from which the
Masonry of today is descended. At least, such a
sketch will show that, from times of old, the order
of Masons has been a teacher of morality, charity,
and truth, unique in its genius, noble in its spirit,
and benign in its influence.

Taking its ethical teaching first, we have only to
turn to tlie Old Charges or Constitutions of the

128

THE BUILDERS

order, with their quaint blending of high truth and
homely craft-law, to find the moral basis of uni-
versal Masonry. These old documents were a part
of the earliest ritual of the order, and were recited
or read to every young man at the time of his ini-
tiation as an Entered Apprentice. As such, they
rehearsed the legends, laws, and ethics of the craft
for his information, and, as we have seen, they in-
sisted upon the antiquity of the order, as well as its
service to mankind — a fact peculiar to Masonry,
for no other order has ever claimed such a legend-'
ary or traditional history. Having studied that
legendary record and its value as history, it remains
to examine the moral code laid before the candidate
who, having taken a solemn oath of loyalty and
secrecy, was instructed in his duties as an Appren-
tice and his conduct as a man. What that old code
lacked in subtlety is more than made up in simplic-
ity, and it might all be stated in the words of the
Prophet : “To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk
humbly before God,'’ — the old eternal moral law,
founded in faith, ^ tried by time, and approved as
valid for men of every clime, creed, and condition.

Turning to the Regius MS, we find fifteen
"points” or rules set forth for the guidance of Fel-
lowcrafts, and as many for the rule of Master
Masons.* Later the number was reduced to nine,

^ Our present craft nomenclature is all wrong; the old order was
first Apprentice, then Master, then Fellowcraft — mastership being,

FElylvOWCRAFTS

129

but so far from being an abridgment, it was in fact
an elaboration of the original code; and by the time
we reach the Roberts and Watson MSS a similar
set of requirements for Apprentices had been adopt-
ed — or rather recorded, for they had been in use
long before. It will make for clearness if we re-
verse the order and take the Apprentice charge
first, as it shows what manner of men were admit-
ted to the order. No man was made a Mason save
by his own free choice, and he had to prove himself
a freeman of lawful age, of legitimate birth, of
sound body, of clean habits, and of good repute,
else he was not eligible. Also, he had to bind him-
self by solemn oath to serve under rigid rules for a
period of seven years, vowing absolute obedience —
for the old-time Lodge was a school in which young

not a degree conferred, but a reward of skill as a workman and of
merit as a man. The confusion today is due, no doubt, to the cus-
tom of the German Guilds, where a Fellowcraft had to serve an
additional two years as a journeyman before becoming a Master.
No such restriction was known in England. Indeed, the reverse
was true, and it was not the Fellowcraft but the Apprentice who
prepared his masterpiece, and if it was accepted, he became a
Master. Having won his mastership, he was entitled to becomes
a Fellowcraft — that is, a peer and fellow of the fraternity which
hitherto he had only served. Also, we must distinguish between a
Master and the Master of the Work, now represented by the Mas-
ter of the lodge. Between a Master and the Master of the Work
there was no difference, of course, except an accidental one; they
were both Masters and Fellows. Any Master (or Fellow) could
become a Master of the Work at any time, provided he was of suf-
ficient skill and had the luck to be chosen as such either by the em-
ployer, or the Lodge, or both.

130

THE BUIlvDERS

men studied, not only the art of building and its
symbolism, but the seven sciences as well. At first
the Apprentice was little more than a servant, do-
ing the most menial work, his period of endenture
being at once a test of his character and a training
for his work. If he proved himself trustworthy
and proficient, his wages were increased, albeit his
rules of conduct were never relaxed. How austere
the discipline was may be seen from a summary of
its rules:

Confessing faith in God, an Apprentice vowed to
honor the Church, the State, and the Master under
whom he served, agreeing not to absent himself
from the service of the order, by day or night, save
with the license of the Master. He must be honest,
truthful, upright, faithful in keeping the secrets of
the craft, or the confidence of the Master, or of any
Eree-mason, when communicated to him as such.
Above all he must be chaste, never committing adul-
tery or fornication, and he must not marry, or con-
tract himself to any woman, during his apprentice-
ship. He must be obedient to the Master without
argument or murmuring, respectful to all Free-
masons, courteous, avoiding obscene or uncivil
speech, free from slander, dissension, or dispute.
He must not haunt or frequent any tavern or ale-
house, or so much as go into them except it be upon

FELLOWCRAFTS

131

an errand of the Master or with his consent, using
neither cards, dice, nor any unlawful game,
“Christmas time excepted.’^ He must not steal any-
thing even to the value of a penny, or suffer it to
be done, or shield anyone guilty of tlaeft, but report
the fact to the Master with all speed.

After seven long years the Apprentice brought
his masterpiece to the Lodge — or, in earlier times,
to the annual Assembly ^ — and on strict trial and
due examination was declared a Master, There-
upon he ceased to be a pupil and servant, passed in-
to the ranks of Fellowcrafts, and became a free
man capable, for the first' time in his life, of earning
his living and choosing his own employer. Having
selected a Mark ® by which his work could be iden-

^ The older MSS indicate that initiations took place, for the most
part, at the annual Assemblies, which were bodies not unlike the
Grand Lodges of today, presided over by a President — a Grand
Master in fact, though not in name. Democratic in government, as
Masonry has always been, they received Apprentices, examined can-
didates for mastership, tried cases, adjusted disputes, and regulated
the craft; but they were also occasions of festival and social good
will. At a later time they declined, and the functions of initiation
riiore and more reverted to the Lodges.

2 The subject of Mason’s Marks is most interesting, particularly
with reference to the origin and growth of Gothic architecture, but
too intricate to be entered upon here. As for example^ an essay en-
titled '‘Scottish Mason’s Marks Compared with Those of Other
Countries,” by Prof. T H. Lewis, British Archaeological AssodaiAoni
1888 , and the theory there advanced that some great unknown archi-
tect introduced Gothic architecture from the East, as shown by the

132

THE BUILDERS

tified, he could then take his kit of tools and travel
as a Master of his art, receiving the wages of a
Master — not, however, without first reaffirming
his vows of honesty, truthfulness, fidelity, temper-
ance, and chastity, and assuming added obligations
to uphold the honor of the order. Again he was
sworn not to lay bare, nor to tell to any man what
he heard or saw done in the Lodge, and to keep
the secrets of a fellow Mason as inviolably as his
own — unless such a secret imperiled the good
name of the craft. He furthermore promised to
act as mediator between his Master and his Fellows,
and to deal justly with both parties. If he saw a
Fellow hewing a stone which he was in a fair way
to spoil, he must help him without loss of time, if
able to do so, that the whole work be not ruined.
Or if he met a fellow Mason in distress, or sorrow,
he must aid him so far as lay within his power. In
short, he must live in justice and honor with all
men, especially with the members of the order, "that
the bond of mutual charity and love may augment
and continue.”

Still more binding, if possible, were the vows of
a Fellowcraft when he was elevated to the dignity
of Master of the Lodge or of the Work. Once

difference in Mason’s Marks as compared with those of the Norman
period* (Also proceedings of A» Q €.» iiii 65>81.)

FEIylvOWCRAFTS

133

more he took solemn oath to keep the secrets of the
order unprofaned, and more than one old MS
quotes the Golden Rule as the law of the Master’s
office. He must be steadfast, trusty, and true; pay
his Fellows truly; take no bribe; and as a judge
stand upright. He must attend the annual Assem-
bly, unless disabled by illness, if within fifty miles —
the distance varying, however, in different MSS.
He must be careful in admitting Apprentices, tak-
ing only such as are fit both physically and morally,
and keeping none without assurance that he would
stay seven years in order to learn his craft. He
must be patient with his pupils, instruct them dili-
gently, encourage them with increased pay, and not
permit them to work at night, “unless in the pursuit
of knowledge, which shall be a sufficient excuse.”
He must be wise and discreet, and undertake no
work he cannot both perform and complete equally
to the profit of his employer and the craft. Should
a Fellow be overtaken by error, he must be gentle,
skilful, and forgiving, seeking rather to help than
to hurt, abjuring scandal and bitter words. He
must not attempt to supplant a Master of the Lodge
or of the Work, or belittle his work, but recommend
it and assist him in improving it. He must be lib-
eral in charity to those in need, helping a Fellow
who has fallen upon evil lot, giving him work and

134

THE BUIEDERS

wages for at least a fortnight, or if he has no work,
“relieve him with money to defray his reasonalble
charges to the next. Lodge.” For the rest, he must
in all ways act in a manner befitting the nobility of
his oflSce and his order.

Such were some of the laws of the moral life by
which the old Craft-masonry sought to train its
members, not only to be good workmen, but to be
good and true men, serving their Fellows ; to which,
as the Rawlinson MS tells us, “divers new articles
have been added by the free choice and good con-
sent and best advice of the Perfect and True Ma-
sons, Masters, and Brethren.” If, as an ethic of
life, these laws seem simple and rudimentary, they
are none the less fundamental, and they remain to
this day the only gate and way by which those must
enter who would go up to the House of the Lord.
As such they are great and saving things to lay to
heart and act upon, and if Masonry taught nothing
else its title to the respect of mankind would be
clear. They have a double aspect: first, the build-
ing of a spiritual man upon immutable moral foun-
dations; and second, the great and simple religious
faith in the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of
man, and the Life Eternal, taught by Masonry from
its earliest history to this good day. Morality and
theistic religion — upon these two rocks Masonry

FEI.LOWCRAFTS

135

has always stood, and they are the only basis upon
which man may ever hope to rear the spiritual edi-
fice of his life, even to the capstone thereof.

II

Imagine, now, a band of these builders, bound
together by solemn vows and mutual interests, jour-
neying over the most abominable roads toward the
site selected for an abbey or cathedral. Traveling
was attended with many dangers, and the company
was therefore always well armed, the disturbed
.state of the country rendering such a precaution
necessary. Tools and provisions belonging to the
party were carried on pack-horses or mules, placed
in the center of the convoy, in charge of keepers.
The company consisted of a Master Mason direct-
ing the work. Fellows of the craft, and Apprentices
serving their time. Besides these we find sub-
ordinate laborers, not of the Lodge though in it,
termed layers, setters, tilers, and so forth. Mas-
ters and Fellows wore a distinctive costume, which
remained almost unchanged in its fashion for no
less than three centuries.^ Withal, it was a serious

^History of Masonry, Steinbrenner. It consisted of a sbort
black tunic — in summer made of linen, in winter of wool — open at
the sides, with a gorget to which a hood was attached; round the
waist was a leathern girdle, from which depended a sword and a
satchel Over the tunic was a black scapularyi similar to the habit

136 THE BUILDERS

company, but in nowise solemn, and the tedium of
the journey was no doubt beguiled by song, story,
and the humor incident to travel.

“Wherever they came," writes Mr. Hope in his
Bssay on Architecture, “in the suite of missionaries,
or were called by the natives, or arrived of their
own accord, to seek employment, they appeared
headed by a chief surveyor, who governed the whole
troop, and named one man out of every ten, under
the name of warden, to overlook the other nine, set
themselves to building temporary huts for their hab-
itation around the spot where the work was to be
carried on, regularly organized their different de-
partments, fell to work, sent for fresh supplies of
their brethren as the object demanded, and, when all
was finished, again they raised their encampment,
and went elsewhere to undertake other work.”

Here we have a glimpse of the methods of the
Free-masons, of their organization, almost military
in its order and dispatch, and of their migratory
life; although they had a more settled life than this
ungainly sentence allows, for long time was re-

of a priest, tucked under the girdle when, they were working, but
on holydays allowed to hang down. No doubt this garment also
served as a coverlet at night; as was the custom of the Middle Ages,
sheets and blankets being luxuries enjoyed only by the rich and
titled (History of Agriculture and Prices in Hngland, T. Rogers).
On their heads they wore large felt or straw hats, and tight leather
breeches and long boots completed the garb.

FELLOWCRAFTS

137

quired for the building of a great cathedral. Some-
times, it would seem, they made special contracts
with the inhabitants of a town where they were to
erect a church, containing such stipulations as, that
a lyodge covered with tiles should be built for their
accommodation, and that every laborer should be
provided with a white apron of a peculiar kind of
leather and gloves to shield the hands from stone
and slime.’’ At all events, the picture we have is
that of a little community or village of workmen,
living in rude dwellings, with a lyodge room at the
center adjoining a slowly rising cathedral — the
Master busy with his plans and the care of his
craft; Fellows shaping stones for walls, arches, or
spires; Apprentices fetching tools or mortar, and
when necessary, tending the sick, and performing

1 Gloves were more widely used in the olden times than now,
and the practice of giving them as presents was common in medi-
aeval times. Often, when the harvest was over, gloves were dis-
tributed to the laborers who gathered it {History of Prices in Sng^
land, Rogers), and richly embroidered gloves formed an offering
gladly accepted by princes. Indeed, the bare hand was regarded
as a symbol of hostility, and the gloved hand a token of peace and
goodwill. "Bqt Masons, however, the white gloves and apron had
meanings hardly guessed by others, and their* symbolism remains to
this day with its simple and eloquent appeal. (See chapter on *^Ma-
sonic Clothing and Regalia,’* in Things a Freemason Should KnoWt
by J. W. Crowe, an interesting article by Rylands, A» Q, C,, vol v,
and the delightful essay on “Gloves,** by Dr. Mackey, in. his Syn^
bolisfn of Freemasonry,) Not only the tools of the builder, but his
clothing, had moral meaning.

138 THE BUILDERS

all offices of a similar nature. Always the Lodge
was the center of interest and activity, a place of
labor, of study, of devotion, as well as the common
room for the social life of the order. Every morn-
ing, as we learn from the Fabric Rolls of York Min-
ster, began with devotion, followed by the directions
of the Master for the work of the day, which no
doubt included study of the laws of the art, plans of
construction, and the mystical meaning of orna-
ments and emblems. Only Masons were in attend-
ance at such times, the Lodge being closed to all
others, and guarded by a Tiler ^ against “the ap-
proach of cowans * and eavesdroppers.” Thus the

^Tiler — like the word cable-tow—is a word peculiar to the
language of Kasonry, and means one who guards the I«odge to see
that only Masons are within ear-shot It probably derives from the
Middle Ages when the makers of tiles for roofing were also of mi'-
gratory habits ^History of Prices in Bngland, Rogers), and accom-
panied the Free-masons to perform their share of the work of cov-
ering buildings. Some tiler was appointed to act as sentinel to keep
off intruders^ and hence, in course of time, the name of Tiler came
to be applied to any Mason who guarded the Lodge.

^ Much has been written of the derivation and meaning of the
word cowaut some finding its origin in a Creek term meaning
'*dog.” (Sete "An Inquiry Concerning Cowans,” by D. Ramsay, Rc-
vieTO of Preemasonry, vol. i.) But its origin is still to seek, unless
we accept it as an old Scotch word of contempt {Dictionary of
Scottish Language, Jamieson). Sir Walter Scott uses it as such in
Rob Roy, “she doesna* value a Cawmil mair as a cowan” (chap,
xxix). Masons used the word to describe a “dry-diker, one who
built without cement," or a Mason without the word. Unfortunate-
ly, we still have cowans in this sense —men who try to be Masons

FKI.LOWCRAFTS

139

work of each day was begun, moving forward
amidst the din and litter of the hours, until the craft
was called from labor to rest and refreshment; and
thus a cathedral was uplifted as a monument to the
Order, albeit the names of the builders are faded
and lost. Employed for years on the same build-
ing, and living together in the Lodge, it is not
strange that Free-masons came to know and love
one another, and to have a feeling of loyalty to their
craft, unique, peculiar, and enduring. Traditions of
fun and frolic, of song and feast and gala-day, have
floated down to us, telling of a comradeship as joy-
ous as it was genuine. If their life had hardship
and vicissitude, it had also its grace and charm of
friendship, of sympathy, service, and community of
interest, and the joy that comes of devotion to a
high and noble art.

When a Mason wished to leave one Lodge and go
elsewhere to work, as he was free to do when he de-
sired, he had no difSculty in making himself known

without using the cement of brotherly love. If only iJiey could be
kept o\it 1 Blackstone describes an eavesdropper as “a common nui-
sance punishable by fine/’ legend says that the old-time Masons
punished such prying persons, who sought to learn their signs and
secrets, by holding them under the eaves until the water ran in at
the neck and out at the heels. What penalty was inflicted in dry
weather, we are not informed. At any rate, they had contempt for
a man who tried to make use of the signs of the craft without know-
ing its art and ethics.

140

THE BUIEDERS

to the men of his craft by certain signs, grips, and
words.^ Such tokens of recognition were necessary
to men who traveled afar in those uncertain days,
especially when references or other means of iden-
tification were ofttimes impossible. All that many
people knew about the order was that its members
had a code of secret signs, and that no Mason need
be friendless or alone when other Masons were
within sight or hearing; so that the very name of
the craft came to stand for any mode oi^ hidden rec-
ognition. Steele, in the Toiler, speaks of a class of
people who have "their signs and tokens like Eree-

^This subject is most {ascinatingf. Even in primitive ages there
seems to have been a kind of universal sign-language employed, at
times, by all peoples. Among widely separated tribes the signs were
very similar, owing, perhaps, to the fact that they were natural ges-
tures of greeting, of warning, or of distress. There is intimation
of this in the Bible, when the life of Ben-Hadad was saved by a
sign given (I Kings, 20:30-35). Even among the North American
Indians a sign-code of like sort was known (Indian Masonry, R. C.
Wrightr chap lii). ''Mr. Ellis, by means of his knowledge as a
Master Mason, actually passed himself into the sacred part or ady-
tum of one of the temples of India” (Anacalypsis, G. Higgins, vol.
i, 767). See also the experience of Haskett Smith among the
Druses, already referred to (A, Q. C., iv, 11). Kipling has a rol-
licking story with the Masonic sign-code for a theme, entitled The
Man Who Would he King, and his imagination is positively un-
canny. If not a little of the old sign-language of the race lives to
Siis day In Masonic Eodges, it is due not only to the exigencies of
the craft, but also to the instinct of the order for the old, the uni-
versal, the hufnani its genius for making use of all 'the ways and
means whereby men may be brought to know and love and help one
another.

FKLLOWCRAFTS

141

masons.” There were more than one of these signs
and tokens, as we are more than once told — in the
Harleian MS, for example, which speaks of "words
and signs.” What they were may not be here dis-
cussed, but it is safe to say that a Master Mason of
the Middle Ages, were he to return from the land
of shadows, could perhaps make himself known as
such in a Fellowcraft Lodge of today. No doubt
some things would puzzle him at first, but he would
recognize the officers of the Lodge, its form, its
emblems, its great altar Light, and its moral truth
taught in symbols. Besides, he could tell us, if so
minded, much that we should like to learn about the
craft in the olden times, its hidden mysteries, the
details of its rites, and the meaning of its symbols
when the poetry of building was yet alive.

Ill

This brings us to one of the most hotly debated
questions in Masonic history — the question as to
the number and nature of the degrees made use of
in the old craft lodges. Hardly any other subject
has so deeply engaged the veteran archaeologists of
the order, and while it ill becomes any one glibly to
decide such an issue, it is at least permitted us, after
studying all of value that has been written on both
sides, to sum up what seems to be the truth arrived

142

THE BUILDERS

at.^ While such a thing as a written record of an
ancient degree — aside from the Old Charges,
which formed a part of the earliest rituals — is un-
thinkable, we are not left altogether to the mercy
of conjecture in a matter so important. Cesar e
Cantu tells us that the Comacine Masters “were
called together in the Loggie by a grand-master to
treat of affairs common to the order, to receive
novices, and confer superior degrees on others" “
Evidence of a sort similar is abundant, but not a
little confusion will be avoided if tlie following con-
siderations be kept in mind ;

Eirst, that during its purely operative period the
ritual of Masonry was naturally less formal and
ornate than it afterwards became, from the fact
that its very life was a kind of ritual and its sym-
bols were always visibly present in its labor. By
the same token, as it ceased to be purely operative,
and others not actually architects were admitted to
its fellowship, of necessity its rites became more

^ Once more it is a pleasure to refer to the transactions of the
Quatuor Coronatt l^dge of Research, whose essays and discussions
of this issue, as of so many others, are the best survey of the whole
question from all sides. The paper by J, W. Hiighan arguing in
behalf of only one degree in the old time lodges, and a like paper
by 0. W. Speth in behalf of two degrees, with the materials for the
third, cover the field quite thoroughly and in full light of all the
facts {A, Q, C., vol, x, 127; voh xi, 47). As for the Third Degree,
that will be considered further along.

^Storia di Como^ vol i, 440,

FEI.LOWCRAFTS

143

formal — *‘very for mall," as Dugdale said in 1686/
— portraying in ceremony what had long been pres-
ent in its symbolism and practice.

Second, that with the decline of the old religious
art of building — for such it was in very truth —
some of its symbolism lost its luster, its form sur-
viving but its meaning obscured, if not entirely
faded. Who knows, for example — even with the
Klein essay on The Great Symbol ® in hand — what
Pythagoras meant by his lesser and greater Te-
tractys ? That they were more than mathematical
theorems is plain, yet even Plutarch missed their
meaning. In the same way, some of the emblems
in our Lodges are veiled, or else wear meanings in-
vented after the fact, in lieu of deeper meanings
hidden, or but dimly discerned. Albeit, the great
emblems stiU speak in truths simple and eloquent,
and remain to refine, instruct, and exalt.

Third, that when Masonry finally became a pure-
ly speculative or symbolical fraternity, no longer an
order of practical builders, its ceremonial inevitably
became more elaborate and imposing — its old
habit and custom, as well as its symbols and teach-
ings, being enshrined in its ritual. More than this,
knowing how “Time the white god makes all things

1 Natural History of HViltshire, by John Aubrey, ■written, but not
published, in

Q, vol. Xj fi2.

144

THE BUIEDERS

holy, and what is old becomes religion,^’ it is no
wonder that its tradition became every year more
authoritative;- so that the tendency was not, as
many have imagined, to add to its teaching, but to
preserve and develop its rich deposit of symbolism,
and to avoid any break with what had come down
from the past.

Keeping in mind this order of evolution in the
history of Masonry, we may now state the facts, so
far as they are known, as to its early degrees ; divid-
ing it into two periods, the Operative and the Specu-
lative."^ An Apprentice in the olden days was “en-
tered” as a novice of the craft, first, as a purely
business proceeding, not unlike our modern inden-
tures, or articles. Then, or shortly afterwards —

^ Roughly spealdng, the year 1600 may be taken as a date divid-
ing the two periods. Addison, writing in the Spectator, March 1,
1711, draws the following distinction between a speculative and an
operative member of a trade or profession: live in the world

rather as a spectator of mankind, than as one of the species, by
which means I have made myself a speculative statesman, soldier,
merchant, and arHsan, without ever meddling with any practical
part of life.** By a Speculative Mason, then, is meant a man who,
though not an actual architect, sought and obtained membership
among Free-masons. Such men, scholars and students, began to en-
ter the order as early as 1600, if not earlier. If by Operative Mason
is meant one who attached no moral meaning to his tools, there
were none such in the olden time — all Masons, even those in the
Guilds, using their tools as moral emblems in a way quite unknown
to builders of our day. *Tis a pity that this light of poetry has
faded from our toil, and with it the joy of work.

FKLLOWCRAIfTS

145

probably at the annual Assembly — there was a
ceremony of initiation making him a Mason — in-
cluding an oath, the recital of the craft legend as re-
corded in the Old Charges, instruction in moral
conduct and deportment as a Mason, and the im-
parting of certain secrets. At first this degree, al-
though comprising secrets, does not seem to have
been mystic at all, but a simple ceremony intended
to impress upon the mind of the youth the high mor-
al life required of him. Even Guild-masonry had
such a rite of initiation, as Hallam remarks, and if
we may trust the Findel version of the ceremony
used among the German Stone-masons, it was very
like the first degree as we now have it — though
one has always the feeling that it was embellished
in the light of later time.’’

So far there is no dispute, but the question is
whether any other degree was known in the early
lodges. Both the probabilities of the case, together
with such facts as we have, indicate that there was
another and higher degree. For, if all the secrets
of the order were divulged to an Apprentice, he
could, after working four years, and just when he
was becoming valuable, run away, give himself out
as a Fellow, and receive work and wages as such. .
If there was only one set of secrets, this deception

1 History of Masonryi p. 66*

146

THE BUIIvDERS

might be practiced to his own profit and the injury
of the craft — unless, indeed, we revise all our ideas
held hitherto, and say that his initiation did not
take place until he was out of his articles. This,
however, would land us in worse difficulties later on.
Knowing the fondness of the men of the Middle
Ages for ceremony, it is hardly conceivable that the
day of all days when an Apprentice, having worked
for seven long years, acquired the status of a Eel-
low, was allowed to go unmarked, least of all in an
order of men to whom building was at once an art
and an allegory. So that, not only the exigences of
his occupation, but the importance of the day to a
young man, and the spirit of the order, justify such
a conclusion.

Have we any evidence tending to confirm this in-
ference? Most certainly; so much so that it is not
easy to interpret the hints given in the Old Charges
upon any other theory. Eor one thing, in nearly all
the MSS, from the Regius Poem down, we are told
of two rooms or resorts, the Chamber and the Lodge
— sometimes called the Bower and the Hall — and
the Mason was charged to keep the “counsells" prop-
er to each place. This would seem to imply that an
Apprentice had access to the Chamber or Bower,
but not to the Lodge itself — at least not at all
times. It may be argued that the "other counsells”

FELI.OWCRAFTS

147

referred to were merely technical secrets, but that is
to give the case away, since they were secrets held
and communicated as such. By natural process, as
the order declined and actual building ceased, its
technical secrets became ritual secrets, though they
must always have had symbolical meanings. Fur-
ther, while we have record of only one oath — which
does not mean that there was only one — signs,
tokens, and words are nearly always spoken of in
the plural ; and if the secrets of a Fellowcraft were
purely technical — which some of us do not believe

they were at least accompanied and protected by
certain signs, tokens, and passwords. From this
it is clear that the advent of an Apprentice into the
ranks of a Fellow was in fact a degree, or contained
the essentials of a degree, including a separate set
of signs and secrets.

When we pass to the second period, and men of
wealth and learning who were not actual architects
began to enter the order — whether as patrons of
the art or as students and mystics attracted by
its symbolism — other evidences of change appear.
They, of course, were not required to serve a seven
year apprenticeship, and they would naturally be
Fellows, not Masters, because they were in no sense
masters of the craft. Were these Fellows made
acquainted with the secrets of an Apprentice? If

148

THE BUIEDERS

so, then the two degrees were -either conferred in
one evening, or else — what seems to have been the
fact — they were welded into one; since we hear of
men being made Masons in a single evening.^ Cus-
toms differed, no doubt, in different Lodges, some of
which were chiefly operative, or made up of men
who had been working Masons, with only a sprink-
ling of men not workmen who had been admitted ;
while others were purely symbolical Lodges as far
back as 1645. Naturally in Lodges of the first kind
the two degrees were kept separate, and in the sec-
ond they were merged — the one degree becoming
all the while more elaborate. Gradually the men
who had been Operative Masons became fewer in
the Lodges — chiefly those of higher position, such
as master builders, architects, and so on — until the
order became a purely speculative fraternity, hav-
ing no longer any trade object in view.

Not only so, but throughout this period of transi-
tion, and even earlier, we hear intimations of “the
Master’s Part,” and those hints increase in number
as the office of Master of the Work lost its practical
aspect after the cathedral-building period. What
was the Master’s Part? Unfortunately, while the
number of degrees may be indicated, their nature
and details caimot be discussed without grave indis-

> For a single example, the Diary of Elias Ashmole, under date
of 1646 .

FELI.OWCRAFTS

149

cretion ; but nothing is plainer than that we need not
go outside Masonry itself to Und the materials out of
which all three degrees, as they now exist, were de-
veloped} Even the French Companionage, or Sons
of Solomon, had the legend of the Third Degree
long before 1717, when some imagine it to have been
invented. If little or no mention of it is found
among English Masons before that date, that is no
reason for thinking that it was unknown. Not un-
til 1841 was it known to have been a secret of the
Companionage in Prance, so deeply and carefully
was it hidden} Where so much is dim one may
not be dogmatic, but what seems to have taken
place in 1717 was, not the addition of a third de-

^ Time out of mind it has been the habit of writers^ both within
the order and without, to treat Masonry as though it were a kind
of agglomeration of archaic remains and platitudinous moralizings,
made up of the heel-taps of Operative legend and the fag-ends of
Occult lore. Far from it I If this were the fact the present writer
would be the first to admit it, but it is not the fact Instead, the
idea that an order so noble, so heroic in its history, so rich in sym-
bolism, so skilfully adjusted, and with so many traces of remote
antiquity, was the creation of pious fraud, or else of an ingenious
conviviality, passes the bounds of credulity and enters the domain
of the absurd. This fact will be further emphasized in the chapter
following, to which those are respectfully referred who go every-
where else, except to Masonry itself ^ to learn what Masonry is and
how it came to be.

^ Uvre dn Compagnonnage, by Agricol Perdiguier, 1841. George
Sand’s novel, Compagnon du Tour de Prancet was published the
same year. See full account of this order in Gould, History of Ma»
sonry, voL i, chap- v.

THE BUILDERS

150

gree made out of whole cloth, but the conversion of
two degrees into three.

That is to say. Masonry is too great an institution
to have been made in a day, much less by a few men,
but was a slow evolution through long time, unfold-
ing its beauty as it grew. Indeed, it was like one
of its own cathedrals upon which one generation of
builders wrought and vanished, and another fol-
lowed, until, amidst vicissitudes of time and change,
of decline and revival, the order itself became a
temple of Freedom and Fraternity — its history a
disclosure of its innermost soul in the natural pro-
cess of its transition from actual architecture to its
"more noble and glorious purpose.’' For, since
what was evolved from Masonry must always have
been involved in it — not something alien added to
it from extraneous sources, as some never tire of
trying to show — we need not go outside the order
itself to learn what Masonry is, certainly not to dis-
cover its motif and its genius; its later and more
elaborate form being only an expansion and expo-
sition of its inherent nature and teaching. Upon
this fact the present study insists with all emphasis,
as over against those who go hunting in every odd
nook and corner to find whence Masonry came, and
where it got its symbols and degrees.

ACCEPTED MASONS

The SysT}SM, as taught in the regular I^odc^s,
may have same Redundancies or Defects^ qccot
sion'd by the Ignorance or Indolence of the old
members. And indeed, considering through
what Obscurity and Darkness the Mysi'Eey has
been delivered down; the many Centuries it has
survived; the many Countries and Languages,
and Si5CTS and Parties it has run through; we
are rather to wonder that it ever arrived to the
present Age, without more Imperfection. It has
run long in muddy Streams, and as it were, un-
der Ground. But notwithstanding the great
Rust it may have contracted, there is much of
the OLD Fabrick remaining, the essential Pillars
of the Building may be discov*d through the
Rubbish, tho* the Superstructure be overrun with
Moss and Ivy, and the Stones, by Length of
Time, be disjointed. And therefore, as the Bust
of an OLD Hero ir of great Value among the
Curious, tho^ it has lost an Bye, the Nose or the
Right Hand; so Masonry with all its Blemishes
and Misfortunes, instead of appearing ridiculous,
ought to be recek/d with some Candor and Bs-
teem, from a Veneration of its Antiquity,

--^Defence of Masonry, 1730

CHAPTER III
Accepted Masons
I

W HATEVER may be dim in the history of
Freemasonry, and in the nature of things
much must remain hidden, its symbolism may be
traced in unbroken succession through the cen-
turies; and its symbolism is its soul. So much is
this true, tha,t it may almost be said that had the
order ceased to exist in the period when it was at its
height, its symbolism would have survived and de-
veloped, so deeply was it wrought into the mind of
mankind. When, at last, the craft finished its labors
and laid down its tools, its s3mibols, having served
the faith of the worker, became a language for the
thoughts of the thinker.

Few realize the service of the science of numbers
to the faith of man in the morning of the world,
when he sought to find some kind of key to the
mighty maze of things. Living amidst change and
seeming chance, he found in the laws of numbers a
path by which to escape the awful sense of life as a
series of accidents in the hands of a capricious

THE BUILDERS

1 54

Power; and, when we think of it, his insight was
not invalid. “All things are in numbers,” said the
wise Pythagoras; “the world is a living arithmetic
in its development — a realized geometry in its re-
pose.” Nature is a realm of numbers ; crystals are
solid geometry. Music, of all arts ^e most divine
and exalting, moves with measured step, using geo-
metrical figures, and cannot free itself from num-
bers without dying away into discord. Surely it is
not strange that a science whereby men obtained
such glimpses of the unity and order of the world
should be hallowed among them, imparting its form
to their faith.^ Having revealed so much, mathe-
matics came to wear mystical meanings in a way
quite alien to our prosaic habit of thinking — faith
in our day having betaken itself to other symbols.

Equally so was it with the art of building — a
living allegory in which man imitated in miniature

^ There is a beautiful lecture on the moral meaning of Geometry
by Dr. Hutchinson, in The Spirit of Masonry — one of the oldest,
as it is one of the noblest, books in our Masonic literature. Plu-
tarch reports Plato as saying, "God is always geomctrizing** {Dioff.
Laert,, iv, 2), Klsewhere Plato remarks that “Geometry rightly
treated is the knowledge of the Eternal” (Republic, 527b), and
over the porch of his Academy at Athens he wrote the words, “Let
no one who is ignorant of Geometry enter my doors.” So Aristotle
and all the ancient thinkers, whether in Egypt or India. Pythag-
oras, Proclus tells us, was concerned only with number and mag-
nitude: number absolute, in arithmetic; number applied, in music;
and so forth — whereof we read in the Old Charges (see “The
Great Symbol,” by Klein, A. Q, C., x, 82),

ACCEPTED MASONS

155

the world-temple, and sought by every device to dis-
cover the secret of its stability. Already we have
shown how, from earliest times, the simple symbols
of the builder became a part of the very life of hu-
manity, giving shape to its thought, its faith, its
dream. Hardly a language but bears their impress,
as when we speak of a Rude or Polished mind, of an
Upright man who is a Pillar of society, of the Level
of equality, or the Golden Rule by which we would
Square our actions. They are so natural, so inevit-
able, and so eloquent withal, that we use them with-
out knowing it. Sages have always been called
Builders, and it was no idle fancy when Plato and
Pythagoras used imagery drawn from the art of
building to utter their highest thought. Every-
where in literature, philosophy, and life it is so, and
naturally so. Shakespeare speaks of “square-men,”
and when Spenser would build in stately lines the
Castle of Temperance, he makes use of the Square,
Circle, and Triangle : ^

The frame thereof seem’d partly circulaire
And part triangular : O work divine !

Those two the first and last proportions are;

The one imperfect, mortal, feminine.

The other immortal, perfect, masculine.

And twixt them both a quadrate was the base,

Faerie Queene, bk ii, canto ix, 22.

156 THE BUILDERS

Proportion’d equally by seven and nine;

Nine was the circle set in heaven’s place
All which compacted made a goodly diapase.

During the Middle Ages, as we know, men rev-
elled in symbolism, often of the most recondite
kind, and the emblems of Masonry are to be found
all through the literature, art, and thought of that
time. Not only on cathedrals, tombs, and monu-
ments, where we should expect to come upon them,
but in the designs and decorations of dwellings, on
vases, pottery, and trinkets, in the water-marks used
by paper-makers and printers, and even as initial let-
ters in books — everywhere one finds the old, famil-
iar emblems.^ Square, Rule, Plumb-line, the per-
fect Ashlar, the two Pillars, the Circle within the
parallel lines, the Point within the Circle, the Com-
passes, the Winding Staircase, the numbers Three,
Five, Seven, Nine, the double Triangle — these and
other such symbols were used alike by Hebrew
Kabbalists and Rosicrucian Mystics. Indeed, so
abundant is the evidence — if the matter were in
dispute and needed proof — especially after the re-
vival of symbolism under Albertus Magnus in 1249,

^tost Language of SymhoUmf by Bayley, also A New Light on
the Renaissancef by the satne author Archiiectvre of the Renais^
Mnce in Bngland, by J. A. Gotch; and '^Notes on Some Masonic
Symbols,” by W. H. Rylands, A, Q. C, viii, 84. Indeed, the litera-
ture ia as prolific as the facts.

ACCEPTED MASONS

157.

that a whole book might be filled with it. Typical
are the lines left by a poet who, writing in 1623,
sings of God as the great Logician whom the con-
clusion never fails, and whose counsel rules without
command : ^

Therefore can none foresee his end
Unless on God is built his hope.

And if we here below would learn
By Compass, Needle, Square, and Plumb,

We never must o’erlook the mete
Wherewith our God hath measur’d us.

For all that, there are those who never weary of
trying to find where, in the misty mid-region of con-
jecture, the Masons got their immemorial emblems.
One would think, after reading their endless essays,
that the S3Tnbols of Masonry were loved and pre-
served by all the world — except by the Masons
themselves. Often these writers iniply, if they do
not actually assert, that our order begged, borrow-
ed, or cribbed its emblems from Kabbalists or Rosi-
crucians, whereas the truth is exactly the other way
roxmd — those impalpable fraternities, whose vague,
fantastic thought was always seeking a local habi-
tation and a body, making use of tiie symbols of
Masonry the better to reach the minds of men. Why

1 J. V. Andreae, Bhreneich Hohenf elder von Aister Hmmb, A
verbatim translation of the second line quoted would read, "Unless
in God he has his building."

158 THE BUILDERS

all this unnecessary mystery — not to say mystifica-
tion — when the facts are so plain, written in rec-
ords and carved in stone? While Kabbalists were
contriving their curious cosmogonies, tlie Masons
went about their work, leaving record of their sym-
bols in deeds, not in creeds, albeit holding always to
their simple faith, and hope, and duty — as in the
lines left on an old brass Square, found in an an-
cient bridge near Limerick, bearing date of 1517:

Strive to live with love and care

Upon the Level, by the Square.

Some of our Masonic writers ^ — more than one
likes to admit — have erred by confusing Ereema-
sonry with Guild-masonry, to the discredit of the

’■When, for example, Albert Pike, in his letter, ''Touching Ma-
sonic Symbolism,” speaks of the "poor, rude, unlettered, unculti-
'vated working Stone-masons," who attended the Assemblies, he is ob-
•viously confounding Free-masons with the rough Stone-masons of
the Guilds* Over against these words, read a brilliant article in
the Contemporary Review, October, 1913, by ly. M. Phillips, en-
titled, "The Two Ways of Building," showing how the Free-masons,
instead of working under architects outside the order, chose the
finer minds among them as leaders and created the difEerent styles
of architecture in Europe. "Such," he adds, "was the high limit of
talent and intelligence which the creative spirit fostered among
workmen. . . The entire body being trained and educated in the
same principles and ideas, the most backward and inefficient, as
they worked at the vaults which their own skillful brethren had
planned, might feel the glow of satisfaction arising from the con-
scious realization of their own aspirations. Thus the whole body
of constructive knowledge maintained its unity. • • Thus it was
by free associations of workmen training their own leaders that

ACCEPTED MASONS

159

former. Even Oliver once concluded that the secrets
of the working Masons of the Middle Ages were
none other than the laws of Geometry — hence the
letter G ; forgetting, it would seem, that Geometry
had mystical meanings for them long since lost to
us. As well say that the philosophy of Pythagoras
was repeating the Multiplication Table! Albert
Pike held that we are “not warranted in assuming
that, among Masons generally — in the body of
Masonry — the sjmibolism of Freemasonry is of
earlier date then 1717.” ^ Surely that is to err. If
we had only the Mason’s Marks that have come
down to us, nothing else would be needed to prove
it an error. Of course, for deeper minds all em-
blems have deeper meanings, and there may have
been many Masons who did not fathom the sym-
bolism of the order. No more do we; but the S3mi-
bolism itself, of hoar antiquity, was certainly the
common inheritance and treasure of the working
Masons of the Dodges in England and Scotland be-
fore, indeed centuries before, the year 1717.

the great Gothic edifices of the medieval ages vrere construct-
ed. .. A style so imaginative and so spiritual might almost be the
dream of a poet or the vi^on of a saint. Really it is the creation
of the sweat and labor of workingmen, and every iota of the bold-
ness, descterity and knowledge which it embodies was drawn out
of the practical experience and experiments of manual labor.” This
describes the Comacine Masters, but not the poor, rude, unlettered
Stone-masons whom Pike had in mind.

“Touching Masonic Symbolism”

i6o THE BUHvDERS

II

Therefore it is not strange that men of note and
learning, attracted by the wealth of symbolism in
Masonry, as well as by its spirit of fraternity —
perhaps, also, by its secrecy — began at an early
date to ask to be accepted as members of the order :
hence Accepted Masons} How far back the cus-
tom of admitting such men to the Lodges goes is
not clear, but hints of it are discernible in the oldest
documents of the order; and this whether or no we
accept as historical the membership of Prince Ed-
win in the tenth century, of whom the Regius Poem
says,

Ot speculatyfe he was a master.

This may only mean that he was amply skilled in
the knowledge, as well as the practice, of the art,
although, as Gould points out, the Regius MS con-
tains intimations of thoughts above the heads of
many to whom it was read.* Similar traces of Ac-
cepted Masons are found in the Cooke MS, com-
piled in 1400 or earlier. Hope suggests * that the

^ Some I/)dges, however, would never admit such members. As
late as April 24, 1786, two brothers were proposed as members of
Domatic lyodge, No. 177^ tendon, and were rejected because they
were not Operative Masons {History Lion and Lamb Lodge, igg,
London^ by Abbott).

* **On the Antiquity of Masonic Symbolism,*' A, Q C , iii, 7,

* Historical Essay on ArchUecturet chap. xxi.

ACCEPTED MASONS i6i

earliest members of this class were ecclesiastics
who wished to study to be architects and designers,
so as to direct the erection of their own churches ;
the more so, since the order had “so high and sacred
a destination, was so entirely exempt from all local,
civil jurisdiction, “ and enjoyed the sanction and pro-
tection of the Church. Eater, when the order was
in disfavor with the Church, men of another sort —
scholars, mystics, and lovers of liberty — sought its
degrees.

At any rate, the custom began early and contin-
ued through the years, until Accepted Masons were
in the majority. Noblemen, gentlemen, and schol-
ars entered the order as Speculative Masons, and
held office as such in the old Eodges, the first name
recorded in actual minutes being John Boswell, who
was present as a member of the Lodge of Edin-
burgh in 1600. Of the forty-nine names on the roll
of the Lodge of Aberdeen in 1670, thirty-nine were
Accepted Masons not in any way connected with
the building trade. In England the earliest refer-
ence to the initiation of a Speculative Mason, in
Lodge minutes, is of the year 1641. On the 20th of
May that year, Robert Moray, “General Quarter-
master of the Armie off Scottland,” as the record
runs, was initiated at Newcastle by members of the
“Lodge of Edinburgh,” who were with the Scottish

i 62

THE BUILDERS

Army. A still more famous example was that of
Ashmole, whereof we read in the Memoirs of the
Life of that Learned Antiquary) Blias Ashmole,
Drawn up by Himself by Way of Diary, published
in 1717, which contains two entries as follows, the
first dated in 1646:

Octob 16.4 Hor. 30 Minutes post merid. I was made
a Freemason at Warnngton in Lancashire, with Colonel
Henry Wainwaring of Kartichain in Cheshire ; the names
of those that were tliere at the Lodge, Mr. Richard
Panket Warden, Mr James Collier, Mr. Richard San-
key, Henry Littler, John Sllam, Richard Bllam and Hugh
Brewer.

Such is the record, italics and all; and it has been
shown, by hunting up the wills of the men present,
that the members of the Warrington Lodge in 1646
were, nearly all of them — every one in fact, so far
as is known — Accepted Masons. Thirty-five years
pass before we discover the only other Masonic en-
tries in the Diary, dated March, 1682, which read
as follows:

About S p. m. I received a Summons to appear at a
Lodge to be held the next day, at Masons Hall, London.
Accordingly I went, and about Noone were admitted into
the Fellowship of Free Masons, Sir. William Wilson,
Knight, Capt. Richard Borthwick, Mr. Will. Woodman,
Mr. Wm. Grey, M, Samuell Taylor and Mr, William
Wise.

ACCEPTED MASONS 163

I was the Senior Fellow among them (it being 35
years since I was admitted) There were present beside
myselfe the Fellowes afternamed: [Then follows a list
of names which conveys no information,] Wee all
dyned at the halfe moone Taverne in Cheapside at a
Noble Dinner prepared at the charge of the new-accept-
ed Masons.

Space is given to those entries, not because they
are very important, but because Ragon and others
have actually held that Ashmole made Masonry —
as if any one man made Masonry! ’Tis surely
strange, if this be true, that only two entries in his
Diary refer to the order; but that does not discon-
cert the theorists who are so wedded to their idols
as to have scant regard for facts. No, the circum-
stance that Ashmole was a Rosicrucian, an Alche-
mist, a delver into occult lore, is enough, the absence
of any allusion to him thereafter only serving to
confirm the fancy — the theory being that a few
adepts, seeing Masonry about to crumble and decay,
seized it, introduced their symbols into it, making it
the mouthpiece of their high, albeit hidden, teach-
ing. How fascinating! and yet how baseless in fact!
There is no evidence that a Rosicrucian fraternity
existed — save on paper, having been woven of a
series of romances written as early as 1616, and as-
cribed to Andrea — until a later time; and even
when it did take form, it was quite distinct from

THE BUILDERS

164

Masonry, Occultism, to be sure, is elusive, coming
we know not whence, and hovering like a mist trail-
ing over the hills. Still, we ought to be able to find
in Masonry some trace of Rosicrucian influence,
some hint of the lofty wisdom it is said to have add-
ed to the order ; but no one has yet done so. Did
all that high, Hermetic mysticism evaporate entire-
ly, leaving not a wraith behind, going as myste-
riously as it came to that far place which no mortal
may explore? ^

Howbeit, the fact to be noted is that, thus early
— and earlier, for the Lodge had been in existence
some time when Ashmole was initiated — the War-
rington Lodge was made up of Accepted Masons.
Of the ten men present in the London Lodge, men-

>> Those who wish to pursue this Quixotic quest will find the
literature abundant and very interesting, i^or example, such essays
as that by F. W. Brockbank in Manchester Association for Re^
search, vol. i, 1909-10; and another by A, F. A. Woodford, A, Q.
Cf, i, 28. Better still is the Real History of the Rosicmcians, by
Waite (chap, xv), and for a complete and final explosion of all
such fancies we have the great chapter in Gould's History of Ma^
sonry (vol. ii, chap. xiii). It seems a pity that so much time and
labor and learning had to be expended on theories so fragile, but
it was necessary; and no man was better fitted for the study than
Gould. Perhaps the present writer is unkind, or at least impatient;
if so he humbly begs forgivepess; but after reading tomes of con-
jecture about the alleged Rosicrucian origin of >Masonry, he is
weary of the wide-eyed wonder of mystery-mongers about things
that uever were, and which would be of no value if they had been.
(Read The Rostcrudan Cosmo^Conception, or Christian Occult
Sciencii by Max Heindel, and be instructed in matters whereof no
tnottal knoweth.)

ACCEPTED MASONS 165

tioned in the second entry in the Diary, Ashmole
was the senior, but he was not a member of the Ma-
sons’ Company, though the other nine were, and
also two of the neophytes. No doubt this is the
Lodge which Conder, the historian of the Company,
has traced back to 1620, "and were the books of
the Company prior to that date in existence, we
should no doubt be able to trace the custom of re-
ceiving accepted members back to pre-reformation
times.” ^ Erom an entry in the books of the Com-
pany, dated 1665, it appears that

There was hanging up in the Hall a list of the Accept-
ed Masons enclosed in a "faire frame, with a lock and
key.” Why was this ? No doubt the Accepted Masons,
or those who were initiated into the esoteric aspect of the
Company, did not include the whole Company, and this
was a list of the “enlightened ones,” whose names were
thus honored and kept on record, probably long after
their decease. . . This we cannot say for certain, but we
can say that as early as 1620 , and inferentially very much
earlier, there were certain members of the Masons’ Com-
pany and others who met from time to time to form a
Lodge for the purpose of Speculative Masonry.®

Conder also mentions a copy of the Old Charges,
or Gothic Constitutions, in the chest of the London
Masons’ Company, known as The Book of the Con-

» The Hole Croft and Pellawship of Masons, hy Edward Con-
der.

Introduction.

i66

THE BUIEDERS

stitutions of the Accepted Masons-, and this he iden-
tifies with the Regius MS. Another witness during
this period is Randle Holme, of Chester, whose ref-
erences to the Craft in his Acadamie Armory, 1688,
are of great value, for that he writes “as a mem-
ber of that society called Eree-masons.” The Har-
leian MS is in his handwriting, and on the next leaf
there is a remarkable list of twenty-six names, in-
cluding his own. It is the only list of the kind known
in England, and a careful examination of all the
sources of information relative to the Chester men
shows that nearly all of them were Accepted Ma-
sons, Later on we come to the Natural History of
Staffordshire, by Dr. Plott, 1686, in which, though
in an unfriendly manner, we are told many things
about Craft usages and regulations of that day.
Lodges had to be formed of at least five members to
make a quorum, gloves were presented to candi-
dates, and a banquet following initiations was a
custom. He states that there were several signs
and passwords by which the members were able “to
be known to one another all over the nation,” his
faith in their effectiveness surpassing that of the
most credulous in our day.

Still another striking record is found in The Nat-
ural History of Wiltshire, by John Aubrey, the
MS of which in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, is

acce;pted masons 167

dated 1686; and on the reverse side of folio 72 of
this MS is the following note by Aubrey : "This day
[May 18, 1681] is a great convention at St. Pauls
Church of the fraternity, of the free [then he cross-
ed out the word Free and inserted Accepted] Ma-
sons ; where Sir Christopher Wren is to be adopted
a Brother : and Sir Henry Goodric of ye Tower and
divers others.” ^ From which we may infer that
there were Assemblies before 1717, and that they
were of sufficient importance to be known to a non-
Mason. Other evidence might be adduced, but this
is enough to show that Speculative Masonry, so far
from being a novelty, was very old at the time when
many suppose it was invented. With the great fire

^Whether Sir Christopher Wren was ever Grand Master^ as
tradition affirms, is open to debate, and some even doubt his mem*
bership in the order (Gould, History of Masonry). Unfortunately,
he has left no record, and the Parentalia, written by his son, helps
us very little, containing nothing more than his theory that the or*
der began with Gothic architecture. Ashmole, if we may trust his
friend, Dr. Knipe, had planned to write a History of Masonry re-
futing the theory of Wren that Freemasonry took its rise from a
Bull granted by the Pope, in the rdgn of Henry III, to some Italian
architects, holding, and rightly so, that the Bull 'Vas cotnfirmatory
only, and did not by any means create our fraternity, or even estab-
lish it in this kingdom” (Life of Ashmole ^ by •Campbell). This
item makes still more absurd the idea that Ashmole himself created
Masonry, whereas he was only a student of its antiquities. Wren was
probably never an Operative Mason — though an architect — but he
seems to have become an Accepted member of the fraternity m his
last years, since his neglect of the order, due to his age, is given as
a reason for the organization of the first Grand I,odge.

i68

the; builders

of London, in 1666, there came a renewed interest
in Masonry, many who had abandoned it flocking
to the capital to rebuild the city and especially the
Catliedral of St. Paul, Old Lodges were revived,
new ones were formed, and an effort was made to
renew the old annual, or quarterly. Assemblies,
while at the same time Accepted Masons increased
both in numbers and in zeal.

Now the crux of the whole matter as regards Ac-
cepted Masons lies in the answer to such questions
as these: Why did soldiers, scholars, antiquarians,
clergymen, lawyers, and even members of the no-
bility ask to be accepted as members of the order of
Free-masons? Wherefore their interest in the or-
der at all? What attracted them to it as far back
as 1600, and earlier? What held them with in-
creasing power and an ever-deepening interest?
Why did they continue to enter the Lodges until
they had the rule of them? There must have been
something more in their motive than a simple de-
sire for association, for they had their clubs, so-
cieties, and learned fellowships. Still less could a
mere curiosity to learn certain signs and passwords
have held such men for long, even in an age of
quaint conceits in the matter of association and
when architecture was affected as a fad. No, there
is only one explanation: that these men saw in

ACCEPTED MASONS

169

Masonry a deposit of the high and simple wisdom of
old, preserved in tradition and taught in symbols —
little understood, it may be, by many members of
the order — and this it was that they sought to
bring to light, turning history into allegory and
legend into drama, and making it a teacher of wise
and'beautiful truth,

GRAND LODGE OE ENGLAND

The doctrines of Masonry are the most beautir
ful that it is possible to imagine. They breathe
the simplicity of the earliest ages animated by
the love of a martyred God, That word ivhich
the Pnritans translated Charity, but which is
really LovU, is the key^stone which supports the
entire edifice of this mystic science. Love one
another, teach one another, help one another.
That is all our doctrine, all our science, ail our
law. We have no narrow-minded prejudices;
we do not debar from our society this sect or
that sect; it is sutficient for that a man wor-
ships God, no matter under what name or in
what manner, Aht rail against us bigoted and
ignorant men, if you will. Those who listen to
the truths which Masonry inculcates com readily
for^ve you. It is impossible to be a good
Mason without being a good mam,

— WiNWOOD The Veil of Isis

CHAPTER IV

Grand Lodge of England

W HILE praying in a little chapel one day,
Francis of Assisi was exhorted by an old
Byzantine crucifix: “Go now, and rebuild my
Church, which is falling into ruins." In sheer loyal-
ty he had a lamp placed ; then he saw his task in a
larger way, and an artist has painted him carrying
stones and mortar. Finally there burst upon him
the full import of the allocution — that he himself
was to be the corner-stone of a renewed and puri-
fied Church. Purse and prestige he flung to the
winds, and went along the highways of Umbria call-
ing men back from the rot of luxury to the ways of
purity, pity, and gladness, his life at once a poem
and a power, his faith a vision of the world as love
and comradeship.

That is a perfect parable of the history of Ma-
sonry. Of old the working Masons built the great
cathedrals, and we have seen them not only carry-
ing stones, but drawing triangles, squares, and cir-
cles in such a manner as to show that-they assigned

174

THE BUILDERS

to those figures high mystical meanings. But the
real Home of the Soul cannot be built of brick and
stone; it is a house not made with hands. Slowly it
rises, fashioned of the thoughts, hopes, prayers,
dreams, and righteous acts of devout and free
men; built of liieir hunger for truth, their love of
God, and their loyalty to one another. There came
a day when the Masons, laying aside their stones,
became workmen of another kind, not less builders
than before, but using truths for tools and dramas
for designs, uplifting such a temple as Watts
dreamed of decorating with his visions of the au-
gfust allegory of the evolution of man.

I

Erom every point of view, the organization of the
Grand Lodge of England, in 1717, was a significant
and far-reaching event. Not only did it divide the
story of Masonry into before and after, giving a
new date from which to reckon, but it was a way-
mark in the intellectual and spiritual history of
mankind. One has only to study that first Grand
Lodge, the influences surrounding it, the men who
composed it, the Constitutions adopted, and its
spirit and purpose, to see that it was the beginning
of a movement of profound meaning. When we see
it in the setting of its age — as revealed, for ex-

GRAND DODGE OE ENGLAND 175

ample, in the Journals of Fox and Wesley, which
from being religious time-tables broadened into de-
tailed panoramic pictures of the period before, and
that following, the Grand Dodge — the Assembly
on 1717 becomes the more remarkable. Against
such a background, when religion and morals
seemed to reach the nadir of degredation, the men
of that Assembly stand out as prophets of liberty of
faith and righteousness of life.‘

Some imagination is needed to realize the moral
declension of that time, as it is portrayed — to use
a single example — in the sermon by the Bishop of
Ditchfield before the Society for the Reformation of
Manners, in 1724. Dewdness, drunkenness, and de-
generacy, he said, were well nigh universal, no class
being free from the infection. Murders were com-
mon and foul, wanton and obscene books found so
good a market as to encourage the publishing of
them. Immorality of every kind was so hardened
as to be defended, yes, justified on principle. The

^We should not forget that noble dynasty of large and liberal
souls in the seventeenth century — John Hales, Chillingsworth, Which-
cote, John Smith, Henry More, Jeremy Taylor — “whose Liberty of
Prophesyinff set the principle of toleration to stately strains of elo-
quence — Sir Thomas Browne, and Richard Baxter; saints, every
tine of them, finely-poised, sweet-tempered, repelled from alt ex-
tremes alike, and walking the middle path of wisdom and charity.
Milton, too, taught tolerance in a bigoted and bitter age (see Seven-
teenth Century Men of Latitude, E. A. George)*

176 THE BUILDERS

rich were debauched and indifEerent; the poor were
as miserable in their labor as they were coarse and
cruel in their sport. Writing in 1713, Bishop Bur-
net said that those who came to be ordained as
clergymen were “ignorant to a degree not to be
comprehended by those who are not obliged to know
it.” Religion seemed dying or dead, and to mention
the word provoked a laugh. Wesley, then only a
lad, had not yet come with his magnificent and
cleansing evangel. Enipty formalism on one side, a
dead polemical dogmatism on the other, bigotry,
bitterness, intolerance, and interminable feud every-
where, no wonder Bishop Butler sat oppressed in
his castle with hardly a hope surviving.

As for Masonry, it had fallen far and fallen low
betimes, but with the revival following the great
fire of London, in 1666, it had taken on new life and
a bolder spirit, and was passing through a transi-
tion — or, rather, a transfiguration 1 Eor, when we
compare the Masonry of, say, 1688 with that of
1723, we discover that much more than a revival
had come to pass. Set the instructions of the Old
Charges — not all of them, however, for even in
earliest times some of them escaped the stamp of
the Church ^ — in respect of religion alongside the

*-For instance the Cooke MS, next to the oldest of all, as well
as the JV, fVatson and York No, 4 MSS. It is rather surprising,
in view of the supremacy of the Church in those times, to find such

GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND 177

same article in the Constitutions of 1723, and the
contrast is amazing. The old charge read: “The
first charge is this, that you be true to God and
Holy Church and use no error or heresy.^^ Hear
now the charge in 1723 :

A Mason is obliged by his Tenure^ to obey the moral
l(m; and if he rightly understands the Artj he will never
be a stupid Atheist nor an irreligious Libertine. Bui
though m ancient times Masons zvere charged in every
country to be of the religion of that country or nation,
whatever it was, yet it is now thought more expedient
' only to oblige them to thai religion in which all men
agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves:
that is, to be Good men and True, or Men of Honor and
Honesty, by whatever Denomination or Pervasion they
may be distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes the
Centre of Union and the Means of conciliating true
Friendship among persons that must have remained at a
perpetual distance.

If that statement had been written yesterday, it
would be remarkable enough. But when we con-
sider that it was set forth in 1723, amidst bitter sec-
tarian rancor and intolerance unimaginable, it rises
up as forever memorable in the history of men ! The
man who wrote that document, did we know his

evidence of what Dr. Mackey called the chief mission of primitive
Masonry — the preservation of belief m the unity of God. These
]MSS did not succumb to the theology of the Church, and their in-
vocations remind us more of the God of Isaiah than of the decrees
of the Council of Ntcsa.

^78 THE BUILDERS

name, is entitled to be held till the end of time in tlie
grateful and venerative memory o£ his race. The
temper of the times was all for relentless partisan-
ship, both in religion and in politics. The alterna-
tive offered in religion was an ecclesiastical tyranny,
allowing a certain liberty of belief, or a doctrinal
t)nranny, allowing a slight liberty of worship ; a sad
choice in truth. It is, then, to the everlasting honor
of the century, that, in the midst of its clashing ex-
tremes, the Masons appeared with heads unbowed,
abjuring both tyrannies and championing both lib-
erties.^ Ecclesiastically and doctrinally they stood
in the open, while Romanist and Protestant, Angli-
can and Puritan, Calvinist and Arminian waged
bitter war, filling the air with angry maledictions.
These men of latitude in a cramped age felt pent
up alike by narrowness of ritual and by narrowness
of creed, and they cried out for room and air, for
liberty and charity !

Though differences of creed played no part in
Masonry, neverthless it held religion in high es-

1 It was, perhaps, a picture of the Masonic Lodges of that era
that Toland drew in his Socratic Society, published in 1720, which,
however, he clothed in a vesture quite un-Grecian. At least, the
symposia or brotherly feasts of his society, their give-and-take of
questions and answers, their aversion to the rule of mere physical
force, to compulsory religious belief, and to creed hatred, as well
as their mild and tolerant disposition and their brotherly regard
for one another, remind one of the spirit and habits of the Masonr
of that day.

GRAND DODGE OF ENGLAND 179

teem, and was then, as now, the steadfast upholder
of the only twp articles of faith that never were in-
vented by man — the existence of God and the im-
mortality of the soul! Accordingly, every Lodge
was opened and closed with prayer to the "Al-
mighty Architect of the universe;” and when a
Lodge of mourning met in memory of a brother
fallen asleep, the formula was : “He has passed over
into the eternal East,” — to that region whence
cometh light and hope. Unsectarian in religion, the
JMasons were also non-partisan in politics : one prin-
ciple being common to them all — love of country,
respect for law and order, and the desire for hu-
man welfare.^ Upon that basis the first Grand

^Now is as good a time as another to name certain curious
theories which have been put forth to account for the origin of
Masonry in general, and of the organization of the Grand Lodge
in particular. They are as follows : I^lrst, that it was all duCf to
an imaginary Temple of Solomon described by Lord Bacon in a
utopian romance called the New Atlantis; and this despite the fact
that the temple in the Bacon story was not a house at all, but the
name of an ideal state. Second, that the object of Freemasonry and
the origin of the Third Degree was the restoration of Charles II
to the throne of England; the idea being that the Masons, who
called themselves “Sons o£ the Widow,” meant thereby to express
their allegiance to the Queen. Third, that Freemasonry was found-
ed by Oliver Cromwell — he of all men I — to defeat the royalists.
Fourth, that Frce-masons were derived from the order of the
Knights Templars. Even Eessing once held this theory, but seems
later to have given it up. Which one of these theories surpasses
the others in absurdity, it would he hard to say. De Quincey ex-
plodes them one by one with some detail in his “Inquiry into the

i8o THE BUILDERS

Lodge was founded, and upon that basis Masonry
rests today — holding that a unity of spirit is better
than a uniformity of opinion, and that beyond tlie
great and simple "religion in which all then agree”
no dogma is worth a breach of charity.

II

With honorable pride in this tradition of spirit-
ual faith and intellectual freedom, we are all the
more eager to recite such facts as are known about
the organization of the first Grand Lodge. How*
many Lodges of Masons existed in London at that
time is a matter of conjecture, but there must have
been a number. What bond, if any, united them,
other than their esoteric secrets and customs, is
equally unknown. Nor is there any record to tell
us whether all the Lodges in and about London
were invited to join in the movement. Unfortun-
ately the minutes of the Grand Lodge only com-
mence on June 24, 1723, and our only history of the
events is that found in The New Book of Constitu-
tions, by Dr. James Anderson, in 1738. However,
if not an actor in the scene, he was in a position to
know the facts from eye-witnesses, and his book

Origin of tbe Free-masons,” to which he might also have added
his own pet notion of the Rosicrucian origin of the order — it be-
ing only a little less fantastic than the rest (Dc Qmtcey^s Works,
VoU xvi)e

GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND i8i

was approved by the Grand Lodge itself. His ac-
count is so brief that it may be given as it stands:

King George I enter d L,ondon most magnificently on
20 Sept, 1714. And after the Rebellion was over A* D.
1716, the few Lodges at London finding themselves neg-
lected by Sir Christopher Wren^ thought fit to cement
under a Grand Master as the Centre of Union and Har-
mony, zffe., the Lodges that met,

1. At the Goose and Gridiron Ale house in St PauPs
Church-Yard,

2. At the Crown Ale-house in ParkePs Lane near
Drury Lane,

3. At the Apple-Tree Tavern in Charles-street, Cov-
ent-Garden,

4. At the Rummer and Grape Tavern in Channel-
Row, Westminster,

They and some other old Brothers met at the said
Apple-Tree, and having put into the chair the oldest
Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge) they con-
stituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro Tempore in Due
Perm, and forthwith revived the Quarterly Communicor
tion of the OMcers of Lodges (call'd the GRAND
LODGE) resolv'd to hold the Annual Assembly and
Peasi, and then to chuse a Grand Master from among
themsdves, till they should have the Honor of a Noble
Brother at their Head.

Accordingly, on St, John's Baptists Day, in the 3d
year of King George I, A, D. 1717, the ASSEMBLY
and Peast of the Pree and Accepted Masons was held at
the foresaid Goose and Gridiron Ale-house.

THE BUILDERS

182

Before Dinner, the oldest Master Mason (now the
Master of a Lodge) in the Chair, proposed a Dist of
proper Candidates; and the Brethren by a majority of
Hands elected Mr. Anthony Sayer, Gentleman, Grand
Master of Masons (Mr. Jacob Lamball, Carpenter, Capt.
Joseph Blliot, Grand Wardens) who being forthwith in-
vested with the Badges of Office and Power by the said
oldest Master, and install’d, was duly congratulated by
the Assembly who paid him the Homage.

Sayer, Grand Master, commanded the Masters and
Wardens of Lodges to meet the Grand Officers every
Quarter in Communication, at the Place that he should
appoint in the Summons sent by the Tyler.

So reads the only record that has come down to
us of the founding of the Grand Lodge of England.
Preston and others have had no other authority
than this passage for their descriptions of the
scene, albeit when Preston wrote, such facts as he
added may have been learned from men still living.
Who were present, beyond the three officers named,
has so far eluded all research, and the only varia-
tion in the accounts is found in a rare old book
called Multa Faucis, which asserts that six Lodges,
not four, were represented. Looking at this record
in the light of what we know of the Masonry of
that period, a number of things are suggested :

First, so far from being a revolution, the organ-
ization of the Grand Lodge was a revival of the old
quarterly and annual Assembly, born, doubtless, of
a felt need of community of action for the welfare

GRAND DODGE OP ENGLAND 183

of the Craft. There was no idea of innovation, but,
as Anderson states in a note, “it should meet
Quarterly according to. ancient Usage" tradition
having by this time become authoritative in such
matters. Hints of what the old usages were are
given in the observance of St. John's Day^ as a
feast, in the democracy of the order and its manner
of voting by a show of hands, in its deference to
the oldest Master Mason, its use of badges of office,*
its ceremony of installation, all in a lodge duly
tyled,

^ Of the Masonic* feasts of St. John the Baptist and St John the
Evangelist much has been written, and to little account In pre-
Christian times, as we have seen, the Homan Collegia were wont to
adopt pagan deities as patrons. When Christianity came, the names
of its saints — some of them martyrs of the order of builders —
were substituted for the old pagan gods. Why the two Saints John
were chosen by Masons — rather than St Thomas, who was the pa-
tron saint of architecture — has never been made dear. At any
rate, these two feasts, coming at the time of the summer and winter
solstices, are in reality older than Christianity, being reminiscences
of the old Eight Religion in which Masonry had its origin.

^ The badge of office was a huge white apron, such as we see in
Hogarth’s picture of the Night The collar was of much the same
shape as that at present in use, only shorter. When the color was
changed to blue, and why, is uncertain, but probably not until 1813,
when we begin to see both apron and collar edged with blue. (See
chapter on “Clothing and Regalia,” in Things a freemason Ought
to KnoWj by J. W. Crowe.) In 1727 the officers of all private —
or as we would say, subordinate -^Eodges were ordered to wear
“the jewels of Masonry hanging to a white apron.” In 1731 wc
find die Grand Master wearing gold or gilt jewels pendant to blue
ribbons about the neck, and a white leather apron lined with blue
silk.

184

run BUILDERS

Second, it is clear that, instead of being a delib-
erately planned effort to organise Masonry in gen-
eral, the Grand Bodge was intended at first to af-
fect only London and Westminster; ^ the desire be-
ing to weld a link of closer fellowship and coopera-
tion between the Lodges. While we do not know
the names of the moving spirits — unless we may
infer that the men elected to office were such —
nothing is clearer than that the initiative came from
the heart of the order itself, and was in no sense im-
posed upon it from without; and so great was the
necessity for it that, when once started, link after
link was added until it “put a girdle around the
earth.”

Third, of the four Lodges ® known to have taken
part, only one — that meeting at the Rummer and
Grape Tavern — had a majority of Accepted Ma-

1 This is clear from the book of Constitutions of 1723, which is
said to be “for the use of I<odges in London.” Then follow the
names of the Masters and Wardens of twenty Lodges, all in Lon-
don. There was no thought at the tune of imposing the authority
of the Grand Lodge upon the country in general, much less upon
the world. Its growth we shall sketch later. For an excellent ar-
ticle on ”The Foundation of Modem Masonry,'* by G. W. Speth,
giving details of the organization of the Grand Lodge and its
changes, see A. Q. ii, 86. If an elaborate account is wanted, it
may be found in Gould’s History of Masonry, vol. iii.

^History of the Pour Lodges, by R. F. Gould. Apparently
the Goose and Gridiron Lodge ~ No. 1 — is the only one of the four
now in existence. After various changes of name it is now the
Lodge of Antiquity, No. 2.

GRAND DODGE OF ENGLAND 185

sons in its membership ; the other three being Oper-
ative Lodges, or largely so. Obviously, then, the
movement was predominantly a movement of Op-
erative Masons — or of men who had been Opera-
tive Masons — and not, as has been so often im-
plied, the design of men who simply made use of the
remnants of operative Masonry the better to exploit
some hidden philosophy. Yet it is worthy of note
that the leading men of the craft in those early
years were, nearly all of them. Accepted Masons
and members of the Rummer and Grape Lodge. Be-
sides Dr. Anderson, tlie historian, both George
Payne and Dr. Desaguliers, the second and third
Grand Masters, were of that Lodge. In 1721 the
Duke of Montagpi was elected to the chair, and
thereafter members of the nobility sat in the East
until it became the custom for the Prince of Wales
to be Grand Master of Masons in England.’'

Fourth, why did Masonry alone of all trades and
professions live after its work was done, preserving
not only its identity of organization, but its old em-
blems and usages, and transforming them into in-
struments of religion and righteousness? The
cathedrals had long been finished or left incomplete;
the spirit of Gothic architecture was dead and the
style treated almost with contempt. The occupa-

1 Royal Masons, by G. W* Speth.

i86

THE BUILDERS

tion of the Master Mason was gone, his place hav-
ing been taken by the architect who, like Wren and
Inigo Jones, was no longer a child of the Lodges as
in the old days, but a man trained in books and by
foreign travel. Why did not Freemasonry die,
along with the Guilds, or else revert to some kind of
trades-union ? Surely here is the best possible proof
that it had never been simply an order of architects
building churches, but a moral and spiritual fellow-
ship — the keeper of great symbols and a teacher of
truths that never die. So and only so may anyone
ever hope to explain the story of Masonry, and
those who do not see this fact have no clue to its
history, much less an understanding of its genius.
Of course these pages cannot recite in detajl the
history and growth of the Grand Lodge, but a few
of the more salient events may be noted. As early
as 1719 the Old Charges, or Gothic Constitutions,
began to be collected and collated, a number having
already been burned by scrupulous Masons to pre-
vent- their falling into strange hands. In 1721,
Grand Master Montagu found fault with the Old
Charges as being inadequate, and ordered Dr.
Anderson to make a digest of them with a view to
formulating a better set of regulations for the rule
of the Lodges. Anderson obeyed — he seems to
have been engaged in such a work already, and may

GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND 187

have suggested the idea to the Grand Master — and
a committee of fourteen “learned brethren” was ap-
pointed to examine the MS and make report. They
suggested a few amendments, and the book was or-
dered published by the Grand Master, appearing in
the latter part of 1723. This first issue, however,
did not contain the account of the organization of
the Grand Lodge, which does not seem to have been
added until the edition of 1738, How much Past
Grand Master Payne had to do with this work is not
certain, but the chief credit is due to Dr. Anderson,
who deserves the perpetual gratitude of the order
— the more so if he it was who wrote the article,
already quoted, setting forth the religious attitude
of the order. That article, by whomsoever written,
is one of the great documents of mankind, and it
would be an added joy to know that it was penned
by a minister.^ The Book of Constitutions, which

iFrom a meager sketch of Dr. Anderson in the Genilemen^s
Magasine, 1783, we learn that he was a native of Scotland — the
place of his birth is not given — and that for many years he was
minister of the Scots Presbyterian Church in Swallow Street, Pic-
cadilly, and well known to the folk of that faith in London — called
“Bishop” Anderson by his friends. He married the widow of an
army oiEcer, who bore him. a son and a daughter. Although a
learned man — compiler of a book of Royal Genealogies^ wfifch
seems to have been his hobby — he was somewhat imprudent in
business, having lost most of his property in 1720. Whether he was
a Mason before coming to London is unknown, but he took a great
part in the work of the Grand Lodge, entering it, apparently, in

i88

THE BUILDERS

is still the groundwork of Masonry, has been print-
ed in many editions, and is accessible to every one.

Another event in the story of the Grand Lodge,
never to be forgotten, was a plan started in 1724
of raising funds of General Charity for distressed
Masons. Proposed by the Earl of Dalkeith, it at
once met with enthusiastic support, and it is a cu-
rious coincidence that one of the first to petition for
relief was Anthony Sayer, first Grand Master. The
minutes do not state whether he was relieved at
that time, but we know that sums of money were
voted -to him in 1730, and again in 1741. This
Board of Benevolence, as it came to be called, be-
came very important, it being unanimously agreed
in 1733 thaf all such business as could not be con-
veniently despatched by the Quarterly Communica-
tion should be referred to it. Also, that all Masters
of Regular Lodges, together with all present, for-
mer, and future Grand Officers should be members
of the Board. Later this Board was still further em-
powered to hear complaints and to report thereon
to the Grand Lodge. Let it also be noted that in ac-
tual practice the Board of Charity gave free play to

l9il. Toward the close of his life he suffered many misfortunes,
but of what description we are not told. He died in 1739. Perhaps
bis learning was exaggerated by his Masonic eulogists, but he was a
noble man and manifestly a useful one (Gould^s History of Ma-
» sonry, vol iii).

GRAND DODGE OF ENGLAND 189

one of the most admirable principles of Masonry —
helping the needy and unfortunate, whetlier within
the order or without.

Ill

Once more we come to a much debated question,
about which not a little has been written, and most
of it wide of the mark — the question of the origin
of the Third Degree. Here again students have
gone hither and yon huntjng in every cranny for
the motif of this degree, and it •would” seem that
their failure to find it would by this time have turned
them back to the only place where they may ever
hope to discover it — in Masonry itself. Bdt no;
they are bound to bring mystics, occultists, alche-
mists, Culdees or Cabalists — even the Vehmgerichte
of Germany — into the making of Masonry some-
where, if only for the sake of glamor, and this is the
last opportunity to do it.^ Willing to give due credit

1 Having emphasized this point so repeatedly, the writer feels it
just to himself to state his own position, lest he be thought a kind
of materialist, or at least an enemy of mysticism. Not so. Instead^
he has long been an humble student of the great mystics ; they are
his best friends — as witness his two little books, The Eternal Christy
and What Have the Saints to Teach Us? But mysticism is one
thing, and mystification is another, and the former may be stated ft
this way:

First, by mysticism —'only another word for spirituality— is
meant our sense of an Unseen World, of our citizenship in it, of
God and the soul, and of all the forms of life and beauty as sym- ^

THE BUILDERS

190

to Cabalists and Rosicrucians, the present writer
rejects all such theories on the ground that there
is no reason for thinking that they helped to make
Masonry, much less any fact to prove it.

Hear now a review of the facts in the case. No
one denies that the Temple of Solomon was much
in the minds of men at the time of the organization
of the Grand Lodge, and long before — as in the
Bacon romance of the Nezv Atlantis in 1597-^

bols of things higher than themselves. That is to say, if a man has
any religion at all that is not mere theory or form, he is a mystic;
tlie difference between him and Plato or St. Francis being only a
matter of genius and spiritual culture — between a boy whistling a
tune and Beethoven writing music.

Second, since mysticism is native to the soul of man and the
common experience of all who rise above the animal, it is not an
exclusive possession of any set of adepts to be held as a secret. Any
man who bows in prayer, or lifts his thought heavenward, is an
initiate into the eternal mysticism which is the strength and solace
of human life.

Third, the old time Masons were religious men, and as such
sharers in this great human experience of divine things, and did
not need to go to Hidden Teachers to learn mysticism. They lived
and worked in the light of it. It shone in their symbols, as it does
in all symbols that have any meaning or beaufy. It is, indeed, the
soul of symbolism, every emblem being an effort to express a reality
too great for words.

So, then, Masonry is mystical as music is mystical — like poetry,
apd lov^ and faith, and prayer, and all else that makes it worth
our time to live; but its mysticism is sweet, sane, and natural, far
from fantastic, and in nowise eerie, unreal, or unbalanced. Of
course these words fail to describe it, as all words must, and it is
therefore that Masonry uses parables, pictures, and symbols.

^Seventeenth Century Descriptions of Solomon* s Temple, by
Prof. S. P, Johnston {A, Q. C., xii, 135).

GRAND DODGE OF ENGLAND 191

Broughton, Selden, Lightfoot, Walton, Lee, Pri-
deaux, and other English writers were deeply inter-
ested in the Hebrew Temple, not, however, so much
in its symbolical suggestion as in its form and con-
struction — a model of which was brought to Lon-
don by Judah Templo in the reign of Charles 11 .^
It was much the same on the Continent, but so far
from being a new topic, of study and discussion, we
may trace tliis interest in the Temple all through
the Middle Ages. Nor was it peculiar to the Cabal-
ists, at least not to such a degree that they must
needs be brought in to account for the Biblical
imagery and symbolism in Masonry. Indeed, it
might with more reason be argued that Masonry
explains the interest in the Temple than otherwise.
For, as Janies Fergusson remarks — and there is no
higher authority than the historian of architecture :
"There is perhaps no building of the ancient world
which has excited so much attention since the time
of its destruction, as the Temple of Solomon built
in Jerusalem, and its successor as built by Herod.
Throughout the Middle Ages it influenced to a con-
siderable degree the forms of Christian churches,
and its peculiarities were the watchwords and rally-
ing points of associations of builders.” ’ Clearly,
the notion that interest in the Temple was new, and

1 TtansacHons Jewish Historical Society of England^ vol. xu

2 Smithes Dicfiomry of the Bible^ artide ‘Temple***

192 THK BUILDERS

that its symbolical meaning was imposed upon Ma-
sonry as something novel, falls flat.

But we are told that there is no hint of the Hiram-
ic legend, still less any intimation of a tragedy asso-
ciated with the building of the Temple. No Hiram-
ic legend! No hint of tragedy! Why, both were
almost as old as the Temple itself, rabbinic legend
affirming that “all the workmen were killed that
they should not build another Temple devoted to
idolatry, Hiram himself being translated to heaven
like BnochT ^ The Talmud has many variations of
this legend. Where would one expect the legends
of the Temple to be kept alive and be made use of
in ceremonial, if not in a religious order of builders
like the Masons? Is it surprising that we find so
few references in later literature to what was thus
held as a sacred secret? As we have seen, the leg-
end of Hiram was kept as a profound secret until
1841 by the Trench Companionage, who almost cer-
tainly learned it from the Free-masons. Naturally
it was never made a matter of record,® but was

^ leiiAsh Bncydopedia^ art ''Freemasonry." Also Buildet^s Rites,
a W. Speth.

2 In tht Book of ConsUiuHons, 1723, Dr. Anderson dilates at
length on the building of the Temple — including a note on the mean-
ing of the name Abif, which, it will be remembered, was not found in
the Authorized Version of the Bible; and then he suddenly breaks
off with the words : **But leaving what mnst not, indeed cannot, be
communicated in Writing** It is incredible that he thus introduced

GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND 193

transmitted by oral tradition within the order ; and
it was also natural, if not inevitable, that the legend
of the master-artist of the Temple should be “the
Master’s Part” among Masons who were temple-
builders. How else explain the veiled allusions to
the name in the Old Charges as read to Entered
Apprentices, if it was not a secret reserved for a
higher rank of Mason? Why any disguise at all
if it had no hidden meaning? Manifestly the motif
of the Third Degree was purely Masonic, and we
need not go outside the traditions of the order to
account for it.

Not content to trace the evolution of Masonry,
even so able a man as Albert Pike will have it that
to a few men of intelligence who belonged to one
of the four old lodges in 1717 “is to be ascribed the
authorship of the Third Degree, and the introduc-
tion of Hermetic and other symbols into Masonry;
that they framed the three degrees for the purpose
of communicating their doctrines, veiled by their
symbols, to those fitted to receive them, and gave to
others trite moral explanations they could compre-
hend.” ^ How gracious of them to vouchsafe even
trite explanations, but why frame a set of degrees

among Masons a name and legend unknown to them. Had he done
so, would It have met with such instant and universal acceptance by
old Masons who stood for the ancient usages of the order?

ilvcttei to Gould “Touching Masonic Symbolism.”

194

THK BUILDERS

to conceal what they wished to hide? This is the
same idea of something alien imposed upon Mason-
ry from without, with the added suggestion, novel
indeed, that Masonry was organized to hide the
truth, rather than to teach it. But did Masonry
have to go outside its own history and tradition to
learn Hermetic truths and symbols? Who was
Hermes ? Whether man or myth no one knows, but
he was a great figure in the Egyptian Mysteries,
and was called the Eather of Wisdom.^ What was
his wisdom? Prom such fragments of his lore as
have floated down to us, impaired, it may be, but
always vivid, we discover that his wisdom was only
a hi^ spiritual faith and morality taught in visions
and rhapsodies, and using numbers as symbols.
Was such wisdom new to Masonry? Had not
Hermes himself been a hero of the order from the
first, of whom we read in the Old Charges, in which
he has a place of honor alongside Euclid and Py-
thagoras? Wherefore go elsewhere than to Masonry
itself to trace the pure stream of Hermetic -faith
through the ages? Certainly the men of the Grand
Lodge were adepts, but they were Masonic adepts
seeking to bring the buried temple of Masonry to
light and reveal it in a setting befitting its beauty,
not cultists making use of it to exploit a private
scheme of the universe.

'^Hermes and PlatOt Edouard Schure.

GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND 195

Who were those “men of intelligence” to whom
Pike ascribed the making of the Third Degree of
Masonry? Tradition has fixed upon Desaguliers
as the ritualist of the Grand Lodge, and Lyon
speaks of him as “the pioneer and co-fabricator of
symbolical Masonry.” ^ This, however, is an exag-
geration, albeit Desaguliers was worthy of high
eulogy, as were Anderson and Payne, who are said
to have been his collaborators.* But the fact is tliat

1 History of the Lodge of Bdinburgh

3 Steinbrenneri following Findel, speaks of the Third Degree
as if it were a pure invention, quoting a passage from Ahimon
Reaon^ by Lawrence Dermott, to prove it He further states that
Anderson and Desaguliers were "publicly accused of manufacturing
the degree, which they never denied*^ {History of Masonry^ chap*
vii). But inasmuch as they were not accused of it until they had
beeq many years in their graves, their silence is hardly to be won-
dered at Dr. Mackey styles Desaguliers "the Father of Modem
Speculative Masonry," and attributes to him, more than to any
other one man, the present existence of the order as a living in-
stitution {Encyclopedia of Preemasonry), Surely that is going too
far, much as Desaguliers deserves to be honored by the order. Dr,
J. T. Desaguliers was a French Protestant clergyman, whose family
came to England following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
He was graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1710,
succeeding Keill as lecturer in Experimental Philosophy. He was
especially learned in natural philosophy, mathematics, geometry,
and optics, having lectured before the King on various occasions.
He was very popular in the Grand Lodge, and his power as an
orator made his manner of conferring a degree impressive — which
may explain his having been accused of inventing the degrees. He
was a loyal and able Mason, a student of the history and ritual
of the order, and was elected as the third Grand Master of Masons
in England. Like Anderson, his later life is said to have been be-

196

THE BUILDERS

tlie Third Degree was not made; it grew — like the
great cathedrals, no one of which can be ascribed
to a single artist,- but to an order of men working
in unity of enterprise and aspiration. The process
by which the old ritual, described in the Sloane MS,
was divided and developed into three degrees be-
tween 1717 and 1730 was so gradual, so imper-
ceptible, that no exact date can be set; still less can
it be attributed to any one or two men. From the
minutes of the Musical Society we learn that the
Lodge at the Queen’s Head in Hollis Street was
using three distinct degrees in 1724. As early as
1727 we come upon the custom of setting apart a
separate night for the Master's Degree, the drama
having evidently become more elaborate.

Further than this the Degree may not be dis-
cussed, except to say that the Masons, tiring of the
endless quarrels of sects, turned for relief to the
Ancient Mysteries as handed down in their tradi-
tions — the old, high, heroic faith in God, and in
the soul of man as the one unconquerable thing up-
on this earth. If, as Aristotle said, it be the mis-
sion of tragedy to cleanse and exalt us, leaving us
subdued with a sense of pity and hope and fortified
agfainst ill fortune, it is permitted us to add that in

clouded by poverty aud sorrow, though some of the facts are in
dispute (Gould’s History of Masonry^ vol. Hi).

GRAND DODGE OF ENGLAND 197

simplicity, depth, and power, in its grasp of the
realities of the life of man, its portrayal of the stu-
pidity of evil and the splendor of virtue, its revela-
tion of that in our humani^ which leads it to defy
death, giving up everything, even life itself,
rather than defame, defile, or betray its moral in-
tegrity, and in its prophecy of the victory of light
over shadow, there is not another drama known
among men like the Third Degree of Masonry. Ed-
win Booth, a loyal Mason, and no mean judge of
the essence of tragedy, left these words :

In all my research and study, in all my close analysis
of the masterpieces of Shakespeare, in my earnest deter-
mination to make those plays appear real on tlie mimic
stage, I have never, and nowhere, met tragedy so real,
so sublime, so magnificent as the legend of Hiram. It is
substance without shadow — the manifest destiny of life
which requires no picture and scarcely a word to make
a lasting impression upon all who can understand. To
be a Worshipful Master, and to throw my whole soul
into that work, with the candidate for my audience and
the Lodge for my stage, would be a greater personal dis-
tinction than to receive the plaudits of people in the the-
aters of the world.

UNIVERSAL MASONRY

These signs and tokens are of no small lvalue;
they speak a universal language^ and act as a
passport to the attention and support of the ini-
tiated in all parts of the world. They cannot be
lost so long as memory retains its power, Let
the possessor of them be expatriated, ship-
wrecked, or imprisoned; let him he stripped of
everything he has got in the world; still these
crede7itials remain and are available for use as
circumstances require.

The great effects which they have produced
are established by the most incontestable facts of
history. They have stayed the uplifted hand of
the destroyer ; they have softened the asperities
of the tyrant; they have mitigated the horrors of
captivity; they have subdued the rancor of maU
evolence; and broken dotvn the barriers of polit-
ical animosity and sectarian alienation.

On the Held of battle, in the solitude of the un-
cultivated forests, or in the busy haunts of the
crowded city, they have made men of the most
hostile feelings, and most distant religions, and
the most diversified conditions, rush to the aid of
each other, and feel a social joy and satisfaction
that they have been able to afford relief to a
brother Mason, — jamin FitANKi^iN

CHAPTER V

^ Universal Masonry

I

H ENCEEORTH the Masons of England were
no longer a society of handicraftsmen, but an
association of men of all orders and every vocation,
as also of almost every creed, who met together on
the broad basis of humanity, and recognized no
standard of human worth other than morality,
kindliness, and love of truth. They retained the
symbolism of the old Operative Masonry,^ its lan-
guage, its legends, its ritual, and its oral tradition.
No longer did they build churches, but the spiritual

1 Operative Masonry, it should be remembered, was not entirely
dead, nor did it all at once disappear. Indeed, it still exists in some
form, and an interesting account of its forms, degrees, symbols,
usages, and traditions may be found in an article on "Operative
Masonry” by C. E. Stretton (Transactions Leicester Lodge of
Research^ 19Q?-10, 191142). The second of these volumes also con-
tains an essay on “Operative Free-masons,” by Thomas Carr, with
a list of lodges, and a study of their history, customs, and em-
blems — especially the Swastika. Speculative Masons are now said
to be joining these Operative Eodges, seeking more light on what
are called the Eost Symbols of Masonry.

202

THE BUILDERS

temple of humanity; using the Square not to meas-
ure right angles of blocks of stone, but for evening
the inequalities of human character, nor the Com-
pass any more to describe circles on a tracing-board,
but to draw a Circle of goodwill around all man-
kind.

Howbeit, one generation of men, as Hume re-
marks, does not go off the stage at once, and an-
other succeed, like silkworms and butterflies. No
more did this metamorphosis of Masonry, so to
name it, take place suddenly or radically, as it has
become the fashion to think. It was a slow process,
and like every such period the Epoch of Transition
was attended by many problems, uncertainties, and
difficulties. Some of the Lodges, as we have noted,
would never agree to admit Accepted Masons, so
jealous were they of the ancient landmarks of the
Craft. Even the Grand Lodge, albeit a revival of
the old Assembly, was looked upon with suspicion
by not a few, as tending toward imdue centraliza-
tion; and not without cause. From the first the
Grand Master was given more power than was ever
granted to the President of an ancient Assembly;
of necessity so, perhaps, but it led to misunderstand-
ing, Other influences added to the confusion, and
at die same time emphasized the need of welding
the order into a more coherent unity for its wider
service to humanity.

UNIVERSAL MASONRY

203

There are hints to the effect that the new Mason-
ry, if so it may be called, made very slow progress
in the public favor at first, owing to the conditions
just stated; and this despite the remark of Ander-
son in June, 1719 : “Now several old Brothers that
had neglected the Craft, visited the Lodges ; some
Noblemen were also made Brothers, and more new
Lodges were constituted.” Stuckely, the antiquarian,
tells us in his Diary under date of January, 1721 —
at which time he was initiated — that he was the
first person made a Mason in London for years, and
that it was not easy to find men enough to perform
the ceremony. Incidentally, he confides to us tliat
he entered the order in search of the long hidden
secrets of "the Ancient Mysteries.” No doubt he
exaggerated in tlie matter of numbers, though it is
possible that initiations were comparatively few at
the time, the Lodges being recruited, for the most
part, by the adhesion of old Masons, both Operative
and Speculative; and among his friends he may
have had some difficulty in finding men with an
adequate knowledge of the ritual. But that there
was any real difficulty in gathering together seven
Masons in London is, on the face of it, absurd. Im-
mediately thereafter, Stuckely records, Masonry
“took a run, and ran itself out of breath through the
folly of its members,” but he does not tell us what
the folly was. The "run” referred to was almost

204

THE BUILDERS

certainly due to the acceptance by the Duke of Mon-
tagu of the Grand Mastership, which gave the order
a prestige it had never had before; and it was also
in the same year, 1721, that the old Constitutions
of the Craft were revised.

Twelve Lodges attended the June quarterly com-
munication of the Grand Lodge in 1721, sixteen in
September, twenty in December, and by April, 1723,
the number had grown to thirty. All these Lodges,
be it noted, were in London, a fact amply justifying
the optimism of Anderson in the last paragraph of
the Book of Constitutions, issued in that year. So
far the Grand Lodge had not extended its jurisdic-
tion beyond London and Westminster, but the very
next year, 1724, there were already nine Lodges in
the provinces acknowledging its obedience, the first
being the Lodge at the Queen’s Head, City of Bath.
Within a few years Masonry extended its labors
abroad, both on British and on foreign soil. The
first Lodge on foreign soil was founded by the Duke
of Wharton at Madrid, in 1728, and regularized the
following year, by which time a Lodge had been
established at the East India Arms, Bengal, and
also at Gibraltar. It was not long before Lodges
arose in many lands, founded by English Masons or
by men who had received initiation in England;
these Lodges, when sufficiently numerous, uniting
under Grand Lodges — the old Lodge at York, that

UNIVERSAI, MASONRY 205

ancient Mecca of Masonry, had called itself a Grand
Lodge as early as 1725. The Grand Lodge of Ire-
land was created in 1729, those of Scotland^ and
France in 1736; a Lodge at Hamburg in 1737/
though it was not patented until 1740; the Unity
Lodge at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1742, another
at Vienna the same year ; the Grand Lodge of the
Three World-spheres at Berlin in 1744; and so on,
until the order made its advent in Sweden, Switzer-
land, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

Following the footsteps of Masonry from land to
land is almost as difficult as tracing its early his-
tory, owing to the secrecy in which it enwrapped

^ The Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland, it may be added,
were self-constituted, without assistance or intervention from Eng-
land in any form.

2 A deputation of the Hamburg Lodge initiated Frederick —
afterwards Frederick the Great of Prussia — into the order of
Masons at Brunswick, August 14, 1738 (Frederick and his Tirnes,
by Campbell, History of Frederickt by Carlyle, Findel’s History of
Masonry'), Other noblemen followed his example, and their zeal
for the order gave a new date to the history of Masonry in Ger-
many. When Frederick ascended the throne, in 1740, the Craft
was honored, and it flourished in his kingdom. As to the interest of
Frederick in the order in his later years, the facts are not clear,
but that he remained its friend seems certain (Mackey, Bncyclo-
pedia). However, the Craft underwent many vicissitudes in Ger-
many, a detailed account of which Findel recites (History of
Afarowry) . Few realize through what frightful persecutions Masonry
has passed in many lands, owing In part to its secrecy, but in larger
part to its principle of civil and religious liberty. Whenever that
story is told, as it surely will be, men everywhere will pay homage
to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons as friends of mankind.

206

THE BUILDERS

its movements. For example, in 1680 there came to
South Carolina one John Moore, a native of Eng-
land, who before the close of the century removed
to Philadelphia, where, in 1703, he was Collector
of the Port. In a letter written by him in 1715, he
mentions having “spent a few evenings in festivity
with my Masonic brethren.” This is the first ves-
tige of Masonry in America, unless we accept as
authentic a curious document in the early history of
Rhode Island, as follows: “This ye [day and month
obliterated] 1656, Wee mett att y House off Mor-
dicai Campanell and after synagog gave Abram
Moses the degrees of Maconrie.”"’ On June 5,
1730, the first authority for the assembling of Free-
masons in America was issued by the Duke of Nor-
folk, to Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, appointing
him Provincial Grand Master of New York, New
Jersey, and Pennsylvania ; but he seems not to have
exercised his authority until later, if indeed he ever
exercised it at all. Three years later, 1733, Henry
Price,® of Boston, was appointed to the same office
for New England, and to Price belongs the honor
of being the father of regular Masonry in America.
But Masons had evidently been coming to the New

^History of Pretmasonry, ty Hughan and Stillson, chapter on
"Barly American Masonic History.”

^ "Estahlishment and Early History of Masonry in America,” by
M. M, Johnson. The Builder, vol. i, pp. 111-114, 174-178; vol. ii,

p. 211.

UNIVERSAI, MASONRY 207

World for years, for the two cases just cited date
back of the Grand Lodge of 1717.

How soon Coxe acted on any autliority given him
is not certain, but the Pennsylvania Gazette, pub-
lished by Benjamin Franklin, contains many refer-
ences to Masonic affairs as early as July, 1730.
Just when Franklin himself became interested in
Masonry is not of record — he was initiated in
1730-31 — but he was a leader, at that day, of
ever3dhing that would advance his adopted city; and
the “J^nto,’' formed in 1725, often inaccurately
called the Leathern-Apron Club, owed its origin to
him. In a Masonic item in the Gazette of Decem-
ber 3, 1730, he refers to “several Lodges of Free-
masons” in the Province, and on June 9, 1732,
notes the organization of the Grand Lodge of Penn-
sylvania, of which he was appointed a Warden, at
the Sun Tavern, in Water Street. Two years later
Franklin was elected Grand Master, and the same
year published an edition of the Book of Consfittt-
tions — the first Masonic book issued in America.

FrankUn as a Free Masont by J. P. Sachse. Oddly
enough, there is no mention of Masonry by Franklin in his Auto-
hiographyt or in any of his letters, with but two exceptions, 'so far
as known; which is the more remarkable when we look at his
Masonic career in France during the later years of his life, where
he was actively and intimately associated with the order, even ad-
vancing to the higher degrees. Never for a day did he abate by
one jot his interest in the order, or his love for it.

208

THE BUILDERS

Thus Masonry made an early advent into the new
world, in which it has labored so nobly, helping to
lay the foundations and building its own basic prin-
ciples into the organic law of the greatest of all
republics.

II

Reluniiiig to the Grand Lodge of England, we
have now to make record of ridicule and opposition
from without, and, alas, of disloyalty and discord
witliin the order itself. With the publication of the
Book of Constitutions, by Anderson, in 1723, the
platform and principles of Masonry became matters
of common knowledge, and its enemies were alert
and vigilant. None are so blind as those who will
not see, and not a few, unacquainted with the spirit
of Masonry, or unable to grasp its principle of lib-
erality and tolerance, affected to detect in its secrecy
some dark political design; and this despite the
noble charge in the Book of Constitutions enjoining
politics from entering the lodge — a charge hardly
less memorable than the article defining its attitude
toward differing religious creeds, and which it be-
hooves Masons to keep always in mind as botli true
and wise, especially in our day when effort is being
made to inject the religious issue into politics :

In order to preserve peace and harmony no private

piques or quarrels must be brought within the door of

UNIVERSAL MASONRY

209

the Lodge, far less any quarrel about Religions or Na-
tions or State-Policy, we being only, as Masons, of the
Catholic Religion above mentioned (the religion in which
all men agree) ; we are also of all Nations, Tongues,
Kindreds and Languages, and are resolved against all
Politics as what never yet conduced to the welfare of the
Lodge, nor ever will. This charge has always been
actively enjoined and observed; but especially ever since
the Reformation in Britain or the dissent and secession
of these Nations from the communion of Rome.

No sooner had these noble words been printed,^
than there came to light a secret society calling it-
self the "truly Ancient Noble Order of the Gor-
mogons,” alleged to have been instituted by Chin-
Quaw Ky-Po, the first Emperor of China, many
thousand years before Adam. Notice of a meeting
of the order appeared in the Daily Post, September
3, 1723, in which it was stated, among other high-
sounding declarations, that "no Mason will be re-
ceived as a Member till he has renounced his noble
order and been properly degraded,” Obviously,
from this notice and others of like kind — all hint-
ing at the secrets of the Lodges — the order was

^This injunction was made doubly strong in the edition of the
Book of ConstiUiHonst in 1738. For example: “no quarrels about
nations, families, religion or politics must by any means or under
any color or pretense whatever be brought within the door of the
Lodge • . . Masons being of all nations upon the square, level
and plumb; and like our predecessors in all ages, we are resolved
against political disputes,*^ etc.

210

THE BUIEDERS

aping Masonry by way of parody with intent to
destroy it, if possible, by ridicule. Eor all that, if
we may believe the Saturday Post of October fol-
lowing, “many eminent Ereemasons” had by that
time “degraded themselves” and gone over to the
Gormogons. Not “many” perhaps, but, alas, one
eminent Mason at least, none other than a Past
Grand Master, the Duke of Wharton, who, piqued
at an act of the Grand Dodge, had turned against it.
Erratic of mind, unstable of morals, having an in-
ordinate lust for praise, and pilloried as a “fool” by
Pope in his Moral Essays, he betrayed his fraternity
— as, later, he turned traitor to his faith, his flag,
and his native land 1

Simultaneously with the announcement that many
eminent Masons had “degraded themselves” —
words most fitly chosen — and gone over to the Gor-
mogons, there appeared a book called the Grand
Mystery of Freemasons Discovered, and the cat was
out of the bag. Everything was plain to the Ma-
sons, and if it had not been clear, the way in which
the writer emphasized his hatred of the Jesuits
would have told it all. It was a Jesuit ^ plot hatched

1 Masons have sometimes been absurdly called “Protestant Jes-
uits/* but the two orders are exactly opposite in spirit, principle,
purpose, and method. All that they have in common is that they
are both secret societies, which makes it plain that the opposition of
the Latin church to Masonry is not on the ground of its being a secret

UNIVERSAL MASONRY

2II

in Rome to expose the secrets of Masonry, and mak-
ing use of the dissolute and degenerate Mason for
that purpose — tactics often enough used in the name
of Jesus ! Curiously enough, this was further made
evident by the fact that the order ceased to exist in
1738, the year in which Clement XII published his
Bull against tjie Masons. Thereupon the “ancient
order of Gormogons” swallowed itself, and so disap-
peared — not, however, without one last, futile ef-
fort to achieve its ends.^ Naturally this episode
stirred the Masons deeply. It was denounced in
burning words on the floor of the Grand Lodge,
which took new caution to guard its rites from
treachery and vandalism, in which respects it had
not exercised due care, admitting men to the order
who were unworthy of the honor.

order, else why sanction the Jesuits, to name no other? The differ-
ence has been stated in this way ; ^'Opposite poles these two societies
are, for each possesses precisely those qualities which the other lacks«
The Jesuits are strongly centralized, the Freemasons only con-
federated. Jesuits are controlled by one inan*s will, Freemasons
are under majority rule. Jesuits bottom morality in expediency,
Freemasons in regard for the well-being of mankind. Jesuits rec-
ognize only one creed, Freemasons hold in respect all honest con-
victions. Jesuits seek to break down individual independence, Free-
masons to build it up" (Mysteriat by Otto Henne Am Rhyn).

iFor a detailed account of the Duke of Wharton and the true
history of the Gormogons, see an essay by R. F. Gould, in his
“Masonic Celebrities" series (^. Q. C*,, viii, 144), and more recently,
The Life and WriUngs of Philip, Duke of Wharton, by I^ewis Mel-
ville.

212

THE BUILDERS

There were those who thought that the power of
Masonry lay in its secrecy; some think so still, not
knowing that its real power lies in the sanctity of its
truth, the simplicity of its faith, the sweetness of its
spirit, and its service to mankind, and that if all its
rites were made public today it would still hold the
hearts of nien.^ Nevertheless, of alleged exposures
there were many between 1724 and 1730, both anon-
ymous and signed, and they made much ado, es-
pecially among men who were not Masons. It will
be enough to name the most famous, as well as tlie
most elaborate, of them all. Masonry Dissected, by
Samuel Prichard, which ran through three editions
in one month, October, 1730, and called out a noble
Defence of Masonry, written, it is thought, by An-
derson, but the present writer believes by Desagul-
iers. Others came later, such as Jachin and Boas,
the Three Distinct Knocks, and so forth. They had
their day and ceased to be, having now only an an-
tiquarian interest to those who would know the man-
ners and customs of a far-oflf time. Instead of in-
juring the order, they really helped it, as such things
usually do, by showing that there must be something

^ Findel has a nobly eloquent passage on this point, and It tells
the everlasting truth (History of Masonry, p. 378). His whole his-
tory, indeed, is exceedingly worth reading, the more so because it
was one of the first books of the right kind, and it stimulated re-
search*

UNIVERSAL, MASONRY

213

to expose since so many were trying to do it. But
Masonry went marching on, leaving them behind in
the rubbish of things forgotten, as it does all its
back-stair spies and heel-snapping critics.

More serious by far was the series of schisms
within the order which began in 1725, and ran on
even into the next century. For the student they
make the period very complex, calculated to bewil-
der the beginner; for when we read of four Grand
Bodges in England, and for some years all of them
running at once, and each one claiming to be the
Grand Bodge of England, the confusion seems not a
little confounded. Also, one Grand Bodge of a very
limited territory, and few adherents, adopted the
title of Grand Bodge of all England, while another
which commenced in the middle of the century as-
sumed the title of “The Ancients,” and dubbed the
older and parent Grand Bodge “The Moderns.” Be-
sides, there are traces of an unrecorded Grand body
calling itself “The Supreme Grand Bodge,” ^ as if
each were trying to make up in name what was lack-
ing in numbers. Strict search and due inquiry into
the causes of these divisions would seem to show the
following results:

paper entitled "An Unrecorded Grand Lodge," hy Sadler
{A. Q. C., vol. xviii, 69-90), tells practically all that is known of this
movement, which merged with the Grand Lodge of London in 1776.

214

First, there was a fear, not unjustified by facts,
that the ancient democracy of the order had been in-
fringed upon by certain acts of the Grand Lodge of
1717 — as, for example, giving to the Grand Mas-
ter power to appoint the Wardens/ Second, there
was a tendency, due to the influence of some clergy-
men active in the order, to give a distinctively Chris-
tian tinge to Masonry, first in their interpretations
of its symbols, and later to the ritual itself. This
fact has not been enough emphasized by our histo-
rians, for it explains much. Third, there was the fur-
ther fact that Masonry in Scotland differed from
Masonry in England, in details at least, and the two
did not all at once harmonize, each being rather te-
nacious of its usage and tradition. Fourth, in one
instance, if no more, pride of locality and historic
memories led to independent organization- Fifth,
there was the ever-present element of personal am-
bition with which all human societies, of whatever
kind, must reckon at all times and places this side

^ Nor -was that a1!. In 1735 it was resolved in the Grand Lodge
*^that in the future all Grand Officers (except Grand Master) shall
be selected out of that body** — meaning the past Grand Stewards.
This act was amazing. Already the Craft had let go its power to
elect the Wardens^ and now the choice of the Grand Master was
narrowed to the ranks of an oligarchy in its worst form — a queer
outcome of Masonic equality. Three months later the Grand Stew-
ards presented a memorial asking that they **might form themselves
into a special lodge,** with special Jewels, etc. Naturally this bred
discontent and apprehension, and justly so.

UNIVERSAL MASONRY

215

of heaven. Altogether, the situation was amply
conducive to division, if not to explosion, and the
wonder is that the schisms were so few.

Ill

Time out of mind the ancient city of York had
been a seat of the Masonic Craft, tradition tracing
it back to the days of Athelstan, in 926 A. D. Be
that as it may, the Lodge minutes of York are the
oldest in the country, and the relics of the Craft
now preserved in that city entitle it to be called the
Mecca of Masonry. Whether the old society was
a Private or a Grand Lodge is not plain; but in 1725
it assumed the title of the "Grand Lodge of All Eng-
land,” — feeling, it would seem, that its inherent
right by virtue of antiquity had in some way been
usurped by the Grand Lodge of London. After ten
or fifteen years the minutes cease, but the records
of other grand bodies speak of it as still working.
In 1761 six of its surviving members revived the
Grand Lodge, which continued with varying suc-
cess until its final extinction in 1791, having only a
few subordinate Lodges, chiefly in Yorkshire. Never
antagonistic, it chose to remain independent, and its
history is a noble tradition. York Masonry was
acknowledged by all parties to be both ancient and
orthodox, and even to this day, in England and over

2i6

THE BUIEDERS

the seas, a certain mellow, magic charm clings to
the city which was for so long a meeting place of
Masons/

Far more formidable was the schism of 1753,
which had its origin, as is now thought, in a group
of Irish Masons in London who were not recognized
by the premier Grand Eodge/ Whereupon they de-
nounced the Grand Lodge, averring that it had
adopted “new plans” and departed from the old
landmarks, reverted, as they alleged, to the old
forms, and set themselves up as Ancient Masons —
bestowing upon their rivals the odious name of
Modems. Later the two were further distinguished
from each other by the names of their respective
Grand Masters, one called Prince of Wales’ Masons,
the other the Atholl Masons/ The great figure in
the Atholl Grand body was Lawrence Dermott, to
whose keen pen and indefatigable industry as its
secretary for more than thirty years was due, in
large measure, its success. In 1756 he pitblished its
first book of laws, entitled Ahiman Reson, Or Help
to a Brother, much of which was taken from the

^ Often we speak of “the York Rite,” as though it were the old-
est and truest form of Masonry, but, while it serves to distinguish
one branch of Masonry from another, it is not accurate ; for, strict-
ly speaking, there is no such thing as a York Rite. The name ia
more a tribute of reverence than a description of fact

* Masonic Pacts and Piciions^ by Henry Sadler.

* Aiholl l 4 odges^ by IL F* Gould.

UNIVERSAI, MASONRY

217

Irish Constitutions of 1751, by Pratt, and the rest
from the Book of Constitutions, by Anderson —
whom he did not fail to criticize with stinging satire,
of which hei was a master. Among other things,
the office of Deacon seems to have had its origin
with this body. Atholl Masons were presided over
by the Masters of affiliated Lodges until 1756, when
Cord Blessington, their first titled Grand Master,
was induced to accept the honor — their warrants
having been left blank betimes, awaiting the com-
ing of a Nobleman to that office. Later the fourth
Duke of Atholl was Grand Master at the same time
of Scotland and of the Atholl Grand Lodge, the
Grand Lodges of Scotland and Ireland being repre-
sented at his installation in London.

Still another schism, not serious but significant,
came in 1778, led by William Preston,^ who after-
wards became a shining light in the order. On St.
John’s Day, December 27, 1777, the Antiquity

^William Preston was born iti Edinburgh in 1742, and came as
a journeyman printer to I^ondon in 1760, where he made himself
conversant with the history, laws, and rites of the Craft, being much
in demand as a lecturer. He was a good speaker, and frequently
addressed the Lodges of the city. After his blunder of seceding,
had been forgiven, be was honored with many offices, especially
the Grand Secretaryship, which gave him time to pursue his studies.
Later he wrote the Preemason*s Callender, an appendix to the Book
of Constitutions^ a History of Masonry, and, most famous of all,
Illustrations of Masonry^ which passed through a score of editions.
Besides, he bad much to do with the development of the Ritual.

2i8

THE BUILDERS

Lodge of London, of which Preston was Master —
one of the four original Lodges forming the Grand
Lodge — attended church in a body, to hear a ser-
mon by its Chaplain. They robed in the vestry, and
then marched into the church, but after the service
they walked back to the Hall wearing their Masonic
clothing. Difference of opinion arose as to the reg-
ularity of the act, Preston holding it to be valid, if
for no other reason, by virtue of the inherent right
of Antiquity Lodge itself. Three members objected
to his ruling and appealed to the Grand Lodge, he
foolishly striking their names off the Lodge roll for
so doing. Eventually the Grand Lodge took the
matter up, decided against Preston, and ordered the
reinstatement of the three protesting members. At
its next meeting the Antiquity Lodge voted not to
comply with the order of the Grand Lodge, and, in-
stead, to withdraw from that body and form an alli-
ance with the “Old Grand Lodge of All England at
York City,” as they called it. They were received
by the York Grand Lodge, and soon thereafter ob-
tained a constitution for a “Grand Lodge of Eng-
land South of the Trent.” Although much vitality
was shown at the outset, this body only constituted
two subordinate Lodges, and ceased to exist. Hav-
ing failed, in 1789 Preston and his friends recanted
their folly, apologized to the Grand Lodge, reunited
with the men whom they had expelled, and were

UNIVERSAI, MASONRY

219

received back into the fold; and so the matter ended.

These divisions, while they were in some ways un-
happy, really made for the good of the order in the
sequel — the activity of contending Grand Todges,
often keen, and at times bitter, promoting the spread
of its principles to which all were alike loyal, and to
the enrichment of its Ritual ^ to which each contrib-
uted. Dermott, an able executive and audacious an-
tagonist, had left no stone unturned to advance the
interests of Atholl Mqsonry, inducing its Grand
I^dge to grant warrants to army lyodges, which
bore fruit in making Masons in every part of the
world where the English army went.* Howbeit,

^The history of the Ritual is most interesting^i and should be
written in more detail {History of Masonry^ by Steinbrenner, chap*
vii, "The Ritual"), An article giving a brief story of it appeared
in the Masonic Monthly, of Boston, November, 1863 (reprinted in the
New Mngland Craftsman, vol. vii, and still later in the Bulletin of
Iowa Masonic Library, voL xv, April, 1914). This article is valu-
able as showing the growth of the Ritual — as much by subtraction
as by addition — and especially the introduction into it of Christian
imagery and interpretation, first by Martin Clare in 1732, and by
Duckerley and Hutchinson later. One need only turn to The Spirit
of Masonry, by Hutchinson (1802), to see how far this tendency
had gone when at last checked in 1813. At that time a committee
made a careful comparative study of all rituals in use among
Masons, and the ultimate result was the Preston-Webb lectures
now generally in use in this country. (See a valuable article by Dr.
Mackey on "The Lectures of Freemasonry” American Quarterly
Review of Preemasonry, vol. ii, p. 297.) What a pity that this Re-
view died of too much excellence I

^Military Lodges, by Gould; also Kipling’s poem, The Mother
Lodge,

220

THE BUILDERS

when that resourceful secretary and uncompromis-
ing fighter had gone to his long rest, a better mood
began to make itself felt, and a desire to heal the
feud and unite all the Grand Lodges — the way hav-
ing been cleared, meanwhile, by the demise of the
old York Grand Lodge and the "Grand Lodge
South of the Trent.” Overtures to that end were
made in 1802 without avail, but by 1809 committees
were meeting and reporting on the "propriety and
practicability of union.” Eraternal letters were ex-
changed, and at last a joint committee met, can-
vassed all differences, and found a way to heal the
schism.^

Among the articles of union, it was agreed that Freemasonry
shonld consist of the three symbolic degrees, ''including the Holy
Royal Arch!* The present study does not contemplate a detailed
study of Capitular Masonry, which has its own history and his-
torians {Origin of the Mngbsh Rite, Hughan), except to say that
it seems to have begun about 1738-^, the concensus of opinion dif-
fering as to whether it began in England or on the Continent
('‘Royal Arch Masonry," by C, P. Near, Manchester Lodge of Re^
search, vol. iii, 1911-12). I^awrence Dermott, always alert, had it
adopted by the Atholl Grand I^odge about thirty years before the
Grand Lodge of England took it up in 1770-76, when Thomas Duck-
erley was appointed to arrange and introduce it. Dermott held
it to be "the very essence of Masonry,” and he was not slow in
using it as a club with which to belabor the Moderns: but he did
not originate it, as some imagine, having received the degrees be-
fore he came to London, perhaps in an unsystemized form. Duck-
erley was accused of shifting the original Grand hifasonic word
from the Third Degree to the Royal Arch, and of substituting an-
odier in Its stead* Enough to say that Royal Arch Masonry is

UNIVKRSAI, MASONRY

221

Union came at length, in a great lyodge of Recon-
ciliation held in Freemason's Hall, hondon, on St.
John's Day, December 27, 1813. It was a mem-
orable and inspiring scene as the two Grand Lodges,
so long estranged, filed into the Hall — delegates of
641 Modern and 359 Ancient or Atholl Lodges —
so mixed as to be indistinguishable the one from the
other. Both Grand Masters had seats of honor in
the East. The hour was fraternal, each side willing
to sacrifice prejudice in behalf of principles held by
all in common, and all equally anxious to preserve
the ancient landmarks of the Craft — a most sig-
nificant fact being that the Atholl Masons had in-
sisted that Masonry erase such distinctively Chris-
tion color as had crept into it, and return to its first
platform.’' Once united, free of feud, cleansed of

authentic Masonry, being a further elaboration in drama, follow-
ing the Third Degree, of the spirit and motif of old Craft Masonry
{History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders^ by Hughan and
Stillson).

^It is interesting to note that the writer of the article on
‘‘Masonry** in the Catholic Bncyclopedia — an article admirable in
many ways, and for the most part fair — makes much of this point,
and rightly so, albeit his interpretation of it is altogether wrong.
He imagines ^at the objecdon to Christian imagery in the ritual
was due to enmity to Christianity. Not so. Masonry was not then,
and has never at any time been, opposed to Christianity, or to any
other religion. Far from it. But Christianity in those days— as,
alas, too often now— was another name for a petty and bigoted
sectarianism; and Masonry by its very genius was, and is, unsety
tartan. Many Masons then were devout Christians, as they are

222

THE BUILDERS

rancor, and holding high its unsectarian, non-par-
tisan flag. Masonry moved forward to her great
ministry. If we would learn the lesson of those long
dead schisms, we must be vigilant, correcting our
judgpnents, improving our regulations, and cultivat-
ing that spirit of Love which is the fountain whence
issue all our voluntary efforts for what is right and
true: union in essential matters, liberty in every-
thing unimportant and doubtful; Love always —
one bond, one universal law, one fellowship in spirit
and in truth !

IV

Remains now to give a glimpse — and, alas, only
a glimpse — of the growth and influence of Mason-
ry in America ; and a great story it is, needing many
volumes to tell it aright. As we have seen, it came
early to the shores of the New World, long before
the name of our great republic had been uttered,
and with its gospel of Liberty, Equality, and Fra-
ternity it helped to shape the institutions of this
Continent. Down the Atlantic Coast, along the
Great Lakes, into the wilderness of the Middle West
and the forests of the far South — westward it

now— not a few clergymen— but the order itself is open to men
of all fatthS) Catholic and Protestant, Hebrew and Hindu, who
confess faitfi in God; and so it will always remain if it is true to
its prindples and history*

UNIVERSAL MASONRY 223

marched as "the star of empire” led, setting up its
altar on ^remote frontiers, a symbol of civilization,
of loyalty to law and order, of friendship with
school-house and church. If history recorded the
unseen influences which go to the making of a na-
tion, those forces for good which never stop, never
tarry, never tire, and of which our social order is
the outward and visible sign, then might the real
story of Masonry in America be told.

Instead of a dry chronicle,^ let us make effort to
capture and portray the spirit of Masonry in Amer-
ican history, if so that all may see how this great
order actually presided over the birth of the repub-
lic, with whose growth it has had so much to do.
For example, no one need be told what patriotic
memories cluster about the old Green Dragon Tav-

^ As for the chronicle, the one indispensable hook to the student
of American Masonry is the Hisiory of Preeinasonry and Coi^
cordant Orders, by W» J Hughan and H. L Stillson, aided by one
of the ablest board of contributors ever assembled. It includes a
history of Masonry in all its Rites in North, Central, and South
America, with accurate accounts of the origin and growth of every
Grand Lodge in the United States and Rritish America; also ad-
mirable chapters on Early American Masonic History, the Morgan
Excitement, Masonic Jurisprudence, and statistics up to date of
1891 all carefully prepared and well written. Among other books
too many to name, there are the History of Symbolic Masonry in
the United States, by J. H. Drummond, and *^The American Ad-
denda” to Gould’s massive and magnificent History of Masonry,
vol. iv. What the present pages seek is the spirit behind this forest
of facts.

224 the buieders

ern, in Boston, which Webster, speaking at Andover
in 1823, called “the headquarters of the Revolution”
Even so, but it was also a Masonic Hall, in the
‘Xong Room” of which the Grand Lodge of Massa-
chusetts — an off-shoot of St Andrew’s Lodge —
was organized on St. John’s Day, 1767, with Joseph
Warren, who afterwards fell at Bunker Hill, as
Grand Master. There Samuel Adams, Paul Re-
vere, Warren, Hancock, Otis and others met and
passed resolutions, and then laid schemes to make
them come true. There the Boston Tea Party was
planned, and executed by Masons disguised as Mo-
hawk Indians — not by the Lodge as such, but by a
club formed within the Lodge, calling itself the Cau-
cus Pro Bono Publico, of which Warren was the
leading spirit, and in which, says Elliott, “the plans
of the Sons of Liberty were matured.” As Henry
Purkett used to say, he was present at the famous
Tea Party as a spectator, and in disobedience to the
order of the Master of the Lodge, who was actively
present.’’

As in Massachusetts, so throughout the Col-
onies — the Masons were everywhere active in be-
half of a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Of the men who signed the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, the following are known to have been

tile full stoty, see "Retniniscences of the Green Dragon
Tavern," in pentennial Meiiwrutl of St, Andrevfs hodge, 1870.

UNIVERSAL MASONRY

225

members of tlie order; William Hooper, Benjamin
Franklin, Matthew Thornton, William Whipple,
John Hancock, Philip Livingston, Thomas Nelson;
and no doubt others, if we had the Masonic records
destroyed during the war. Indeed, it has been said
that, with four men out of the room, the assembly
could have been opened in form as a Masonic Lodge,
on the Third Degree. Not only Washington,'^ but
nearly all of his generals, were Masons; such at
least as Greene, Lee, Marion, Sullivan, Rufus and
Israel Putnam, Edwards, Jackson, Gist, Baron
Steuben, Baron De Kalb, and the Marquis de La-
fayette who was made a Mason in one of the many
military Lodges held in the Continental Army.* If
the history of those old camp-lodges could be writ-
ten, what a story it would tell. Not only did they
initiate such men as Alexander Hamilton and John
Marshall, the immortal Chief Justice, but they ipade
the spirit of Masonry felt in "times that try men’s
souls” ® — a spirit passing through picket-lines,
eluding sentinels, and softening the horrors of war.

^ Washington, the A/an and the Mason, by C. H. Callahan. Jack-
son, Polk, Fillmore, Buchanan, Johnson, Gartield, McKinley, Roose-
velt, Taft, all were Masons. A long list may be found in Cyclo^
pedia of Praiernities, by Stevens, article on ‘^Freemasonry! Dis-
tinguished Americans.”

^ Washington and his Masonic Compeers, by Randolph Hayden.

9 Thomas Paine, whose words these are, though not a Mason,
has^eft us an essay on The Origin of Preentasoftry. Few men have
cvef^een more unjustly and cruelly maligned than this great patriot,
who was the first to utter the name ‘^United States," and who, in-

226

THE BUIEDERS

Laying aside their swords, these Masons helped
to lay wide and deep the foundations of that liberty
under the law which has made this nation, of a
truth, “the last great hope of man.” Nor was it an
accident, but a scene in accord with the fitness of
things, that George Washington was sworn into
office as the first President of the Republic by the
Grand Master of New York, taking his oath on a
Masonic Bible. It was a parable of the whole peri-
od. If the Magna Charta demanded rights which
government can grant. Masonry from the first as-
serted those inalienable rights which man derives
from God the Father of men. Never did this truth
find sweeter voice than in the tones of the old Scotch
fiddle on which Robert Burns, a Master Mason,
sang, in lyric glee, of the sacredness of the soul, and
the native dignity of humanity as the only basis of
society and the state. That music went marching
on, striding over continents and seas, until it found
embodiment in the Constitution and laws of this
nation, where today more than a million Masons are
citizens.

How strange, then, that Masonry should have
been made the victim of the most bitter and baseless
persecution, for it was nothing else, in the annals

Stead of being a sceptic, believed in *‘tbe religion in which all men
agree*' — that is, in God, Duty, and the Immortality of the soul.

UNIVERSAI, MASONRY 227

of the Republic. Yet so it came to pass between
1826 and 1845, ^ connection with the Morgan ^ af-
fair, of which so much has been written, and so little
truth told. Alas, it was an evil hour when, as Gals-
worthy would say, "men just feel something big and
religious, and go blind to justice, fact, and reason.”
Although Lodges everywhere repudiated and de-
nounced the crime, if crime it was, and the Governor
of New York, himself a Mason, made every effort to
detect and punish those involved, the fanaticism

^ William Morgan, was a dissolute, nondescript printer in Batavia,
New York, who, having failed in everything else, thought to t^ake
money by betraying the secrets of an order which his presence pol'-
luted. !^oolishly misled, a few Masons had him arrested on a petty
charge, got him out of the country, and apparently paid him to stay
out Had no attention been paid to his alleged exposure it would
have fallen still-born from the press, like many another before it.
Humors of abduction started, then Morgan was said to have been
thrown into Niagara River, whereas there is no proof that he was
ever killed, much less murdered by Masons. Thurlow Weed and
a pack of unscrupulous politicians took it up, and the rest was
easy. One year later a body was found on the shore of Lake On-
tario which Weed and the wife of Morgan identified — a yspr after-
ward I — she, no doubt, having been paid to do so; albeit the wife
of a fisherman named Munroe identified the same body as that of
her husband drowned a week or so before. No matter; as Weed
said, “Jf'r ffood enough Morgan until after the election"' — a char-
acteristic remark, if we may judge by his own portrait as drawn in
his Autobiography, Politically, he was capable of anything, if he
could make it win, and here he saw a chance of stirring up every
vile and slimy thing in human nature for sake of ofhce. (See a
splendid review of the whole matter in History of Masonry^ by
Hughan and Stillson, also by Gould in vot. iv of his History,)

228

THE BUILDERS

would not be stayed: the mob-mood ruled. An
Anti-Masonic political party ^ was formed, fed on
frenzy, and the land was stirred from end to end.
Even such a man as John Quincy Adams, of great
credulity and strong prejudice, was drawn into the
fray, and in a series of letters flayed Masonry as an
enemy of society and a free state — forgetting that
Washington, Eranklin, Marshall, and Warren were
members of the order ! Meanwhile — and, verily, it
was a mean while — -Weed, Seward, Thaddeus
Stevens, and others of their ilk, rode into power on
the strengfth of it, as they had planned to do, de-
feating Henry Clay for President, because he was
a Mason — and, incidentally, electing Andrew Jack-
son, another Mason ! Let it be said that, if the Ma-
sons found it hard to keep within the Compass, they
at least acted on the Square. Finally the fury spent
itself, leaving the order purged of feeble men who
were Masons only in form, and a revival of Mason-
ry followed, slowly at first, and then with great
rapidity.

No sooner had Masonry recovered from this or-
deal than the dark clouds of Civil War covered the
land like a pall — the saddest of all wars, dividing a
nation one in arts and arms and historic memories,

^Cyclopedia of Pratemities, by Stevens, article, “Anti-Mason-
ly,*' gives detailed account with many interesting facts.

UNIVERSAI. MASONRY

229

and leaving an entail of blood and fire and tears.
Ret it be forever rembered that, while churches
were severed and states were seceding, the Masonic
order remained unbroken in that wild and fateful
hour. An effort was made to involve Masonry in
tire strife, but the wise counsel of its leaders, North
and South, prevented the mixing of Masonry with
politics ; and while it could not avert the tragedy, it
did much to mitigate the woe of it — building rain-
bow bridges of mercy and goodwill from army to
army. I'hough passion may have strained, it could
not break the tie of Masonic love, which found a
ministry on red fields, among the sick, the wounded,
and those in prison; and many a man in gray plant-
ed a Sprig of Acacia on the grave of a man who
wore the blue. Some day the writer hopes to tell
that story, or a part of it, and then men will under-
stand what Masonry is, what it means, and what it.
can do to heal the hurts of humanity.’’

^ Following the first day of the battle of Getfysburg, there was a
lyodge meeting in town, and “Yanks” and “Johnny Rebs” met and
mingled as friends under the Square and Compass. Where else
could they have done so? Mason), When the Union

army attacked Uittle Rock, Ark,, the commanding ofhcer, Thomas
H. Benton — Grand Master of the Grand I^odge of Iowa — threw
a guard about the home oE General Albert Pike, io pfoUct his
Masonic library. Marching through burning Richmond, a Union
officer saw the familiar emblems over a hall. He put a guard about
the I^dge room, and that night, together with a number of Con-
federate Masons, organized a society for the relief of widows and

230

THE BUILDERS

Even so it has been, all through our national his-
tory, and today Masonry is worth more for the sanc-
tity and safety of this republic than both its army
and its navy. At every turn of events, when the
rights of man have been threatened by enemies obvi-
ous or insidious, it has stood guard — its altar lights
like signal fires along the heights of liberty, keeping
watch. Not only in our own land, but everywhere
over the broad earth, when men have thrown off the
yoke of tyranny, whether political or spiritual, and
demanded the rights that belong to manhood, they
have found a friend in the Masonic order — as did
Mazzini and Garibaldi in Italy. Nor must we be
less alert and vigilant today when, free of danger
of foes from without, our republic is imperiled by
the negligence of indifference, the seduction of lux-
ury, the machinations of politicians, and the shadow
of a passion-clouded, impatient discontent, whose
end is madness and folly; lest the most hallo-wed of
all liberties be lost.

Love thou thy land, with love far-brought

From out the storied past, and used

orphans left destitute by the -war {fVashingion, the Man and the Ma-
son, Callahan). But for the kindness of a brother Mason, who saved
the life of a youngr soldier of the South, who was a prisoner of
war at Rock Island, 111,, the present writer would never have been
born, much less have written this hook. That young soldier was
my father 1 Volumes of such facts might be gathered in proof of
the gracious ministry of Masonry in those awful years.

UNIVERSAL MASONRY

231

Within tlie present, but transfused
Through future time by power of thought.

V

Truly, the very existence of such a great historic
fellowship in the quest and service of the Ideal is a
fact eloquent beyond all words, and to be counted
among the precious assets of humanity. Forming
one vast society of free men, held together by volun-
tary obligations, it covers the whole globe from
Egypt to India, from Italy to England, from America
to Australia, and the isles of the sea : from London to
Sidney, from Chicago to Calcutta. In all civilized
lands, and among folk of every creed worthy of the
name. Masonry is found — and ever3rw'here it up-
holds all the redeeming ideals of humanity, making
all good things better by its presence, like a stream
underfiowing a meadow.^ Also, wherever Masonry
flourishes and is allowed to build freely after its
divine design, liberty, justice, education, and true
religion flourish; and where it is hindered, they suf-
fer. Indeed, he who would reckon the spiritual pos-
sessions of the race, and estimate the forces that
make for social beauty, national greatness, and hu-
man welfare, must take account of the genius of

Cyclopedia of FrafemifieSt by Stevens (last edition), article,
“Free Masonry,” pictures the extent of the order, with maps and
diagrams showing its world-wide influence.

232 the builders

Masonry and its ministry to the higher life of the
race.

Small wonder that such an order has won to its
fellowship men of the first order of intellect, men
of thought and action in many lands, and every walk
and work of life: soldiers like Wellington, Blucher,
and Garibaldi ; philosophers like Krause, Eichte, and
John Locke; patriots like Washington and Mazzini;
writers like Walter Scott, Voltaire, Steele, Lessing,
Tolstoi; poets like Goethe, Burns, Byron, Kipling,
Pike; musicians like Haydn and Mozart — whose
opera, The Magic Piute, has a Masonic motif ; mas-
ters of drama like Eorrest and Edwin Booth ; editors
such as Bowles, Prentice, Childs, Grady; ministers
of many communions, from Bishop Potter to Robert
Collyer; statesmen, philanthropists, educators, jur-
ists, men of science — Masons many,’’ whose names
shine like stars in the great world’s crown of intel-

1 Space does not permit a survey of the literature of Masonry,
still less of Masonry in literature. (Findel has two fine chapters on
the literature of the order, but he wrote, in 1865, History of Mason-^
ryJ) ^or traces of Masonry in literature, there is the famous chap-
ter in War and Peace, by Tolstoi ; Mon Oncle Sosthenes, by Mau-
passant; Nathan the Wise, and Brnst and Falk, by Lessing; the
Masonic poems of Goethe, and many hints in Wilhelm Meister; the
writings of Herder {Classic Period of German Letters, Findel),
The Lost Word, by Henry Van Dyke; and, of course, the poetry of
Burns*

Masonic phrases and allusions — often almost too revealing —
are found all through the poems and stories of Kipling. Besides

UNIVERSAI. MASONRY

233

lectual and spiritual glory. What other order has
ever brought together men of such diverse type,
temper, training, interest, and achievement, uniting
them at an altar of prayer in the worship of God and
the service of man?

For the rest, if by some art one could trace those
invisible influences which move to and fro like
shuttles in a loom, weaving the network of laws,
reverences, sanctities which make the warp and
woof of society — giving to statutes their dignity
and power, to the gospel its opportunity, to the home
its canopy of peace and beauty, to the young an en-
shrinement of inspiration, and to the old a mantle of
protection ; if one had such art, then he might tell
the true story of Masonry. Older than any living
religion, the most widespread of all orders of men,
it toils for liberty, friendship, and righteousness ;
binding men with solemn vows to the right, uniting
them upon the only basis upon which they can meet
without reproach — like those fibers running
through the glaciers, along which sunbeams journey,
•melting the frozen mass and sending it to the val-

the poem The Mother gadget so much admired, there is The Widow
of Windsor, such stories as With the Main Guard, The Winged
Hats, Hal the Draft, The City Walls, On the Great Wall, many
examples in Kim, also in Traffics and Discoveries, Puck of Pookfs
Hill, and, by no means least, The Man Who Would be King, one
of the great short stories of the world.

234 the buieders

leys below in streams of blessing. Other fibers are
there, but none is more far-ramifying, none more
tender, none more responsive to the Eight than the
mystical tie of Masonic love.

Truth will triumph. Justice will yet reign from
sun to sun, victorious over cruelty and evil. Finally
Eove will rule the race, casting out fear, hatred,
and all unkindness, and pity will heal the old hurt
and heart-ache of humanity. There is nothing in
history, dark as much of it is, against the ultimate
fulfilment of the prophetic vision of Robert Burns —
the Poet Eaureate of Masonry :

Then let us pray, that come it may —

As come it will, for a’ that —

That man to man, the world o’er
Shall brothers be, for a’ that.

Part Ill—Interpretation

WHAT IS MASONRY

1 am afraid you may not consider it an alto^
gather substantial concern. It has to be seen iii a
certain way^ under certain conditions. Some
people never see it at all. You must understand,
this is no dead pile of stones and unmeaning im-
ben It is a i,iving thing.

When you enter it you hear a sound — a sound
as of some mighty poem chanted, l,isten long
enough, and you zvill learn that it is made up of
the beating of human hearts, of the nameless
music of men^s souls — that is, if you have ears
to hear. If you have eyes, you will presently see
the church itself — a looming mystery of many
shapes and shadozvs, leaping sheer from door io
dome. The work of no ordinary builder!

The pillars of it go up like the brawny trunks
of heroes; the sweet desk of men cotd zmnien is
molded about its buhvarks, strong, impregnable;
the faces of Utile children laugh out from every
corner stone; the terrible spans and arches of it
are the joined hands of comrades, and up in the
heights and spaces are inscribed the numberless
musings of all the dreamers of the world. It is
yet building — building and built upon.

Sometimes the twrk goes on in deep darkness;
sometimes in blinding light; now under the bur-^
den of unutterable anguish; now to the tune of
great laughter and heroic shoutings like the cry
of thunder. Sometimes, in the silence of the
night'-iime, one may hear the tiny hammerings of
the comrades at work up in the dome — the cowr
rades that have climbed ahead.

— C. R. K^nn^dy, The Servant in the House

CHAPTER I
What is Masonry
I

W HAT, then, is Masonry, and what is it trying
to do in the world? According to one of the
Old Charges, Masonry is declared to be an "ancient
and honorable institution : ancient no doubt it is, as
having subsisted from time immemorial ; and honor-
able it must be acknowledged to be, as by natural
tendency it conduces to make those so who are obe-
dient to its precepts. To so high an eminence has
its credit been advanced that in every age Mon-
archs themselves have been promoters of the art,
have not thought it derogatory from their dignity
to exchange the scepter for the trowel, have patron-
ized our mysteries and joined in our Assemblies.”

While that eulogy is more than justified by sober
facts, it does not tell us what Masonry is, much less
its mission and ministry to mankind. If now we
turn to the old, oft-quoted definition, we learn that
Masonry is “a system of morality veiled in allegory

240 THE BUILDERS

and illustrated by symbols." That is, in so far, true
enough, but it is obviously inadequate, the more so
when it uses the word “peculiar" as describing the
morality of Masonry; and it gives no hint of a
world-encircling fellowship and its far-ramifying
influence. Another definition has it that Masonry
is “a science which is engaged in the search after
divine truth;” ^ but that is vague, indefinite, and un-
satisfactory, lacking any sense of the uniqueness of
the Order, and as applicable to one science as to an-
other. For surely all science, of whatever kind, is a
search after divine truth, and a physical fact, as
Agassiz said, is as sacred as a moral truth — every
fact being the presence of God.

Still another writer defines Masonry as “Friend-
ship, Love, and Integrity — Friendship which rises
superior to the fictitious distinctions of society, the
prejudices of religion, and the pecuniary conditions
of life; Love which knows no limit, nor inequality,
nor decay; Integrity which binds man to the eternal
law of duty." * Such is indeed the very essence and
spirit of Masonry, but Masonry has no monopoly of

^ SytnhoUsm of Preemasonry, by Dr. Mackey-

^History and Philosophy of Masonry, by A, C. Arnold, chap,
xvi. To say of any man — of Socrates, for example— who had the
Spirit of I^riendship and Integrity, that he was a Mason> is m a sen3e
true, but it is misleading. Nevertheless, if a man have not that spirit,
he is not a Mason, though he may have received the thirty-third de-
gree.

WHAT IS MASONRY

241

that spirit, and its uniqueness consists, rather, in the
form in whidi it seeks to embody and express the
gracious and benign spirit which is the genius of all
the higher life of humanity. Masonry is not every-
thing; it is a thing as distinctly featured as a statue
by Phidias or a painting by Angelo, Definitions,
like delays, may be dangerous, but perhaps we can
do no better than to adopt the words of the German
Handbuch^ as the best description of it so far given :

Masonry is the activity of closely united men who, em-
ploying symbolical forms borrowed principally from the
mason’s trade and from architecture, work for the wel-
fare of mankind, striving morally to ennoble themselves
and others, and th^eby to bring about a universal league
of mankind, which they aspire to exhibit even now on a
small scale.

Civilization could hardly begin until man had
learned to fashion for himself a settled habitation,
and thus the earliest of all human arts and crafts,
and perhaps also the noblest, is that of the builder.
Religion took outward shape when men first reared
an altar for their offerings, and surrounded it with
a sanctuary of faith and awe, of pity and consola-
tion, and piled a cairn to mark the graves where
their dead lay asleep. History is no older than archi-
tecture. How fitting, then, that the idea and art of

1 Vol. i, p. 320. The Handhuch is an encyclopedia of Masonry,
published in 1900. See admirable review of it, A, Q C,^ xi, 64.

242 THE BUIEDERS

building should be made the basis of a great order
of men which has no other aim than the upbuilding
of humanity in Faith, Freedom, and Friendship.
Seeking to ennoble and beautify life, it finds in the
common task and constant labor of man its sense of
human unity, its vision of life as a temple “building
and built upon,” and its emblems of those truths
which make for purity of character and the stability
of society. Thus Masonry labors, linked with the
constructive genius of mankind, and so long as it re-
mains true to its Ideal no weapon formed against it
can prosper.

One of the most impressive and touching things
in human history is that certain ideal interests have
been set apart as especially venerated among all
peoples. Guilds have arisen to cultivate the inter-
ests embodied in art, science, philosophy, fraternity,
and religion; to conserve the precious, hard-won in-
heritances of humanity; to train men in their ser-
vice; to bring their power to bear upon the common
life of mortals, and send through that common life
the light and glory of the Ideal — as the sun shoots
its transfiguring rays through a great dull cloud,
evoking beauty from the brown earth. Such is Ma-
sonry, which unites all these high interests and
brings to their service a vast, world-wide fraternity
of free and devout men, built upon a foundation of

WHAT IS MASONRY

243

spiritual faith and moral idealism, whose mission it
is to make men friends, to refine and exalt their
lives, to deepen their faith and purify their dream,
to turn them from the semblance of life to homage
for truth, beauty, righteousness, and character.
More than an institution, more than a tradition,
more than a society. Masonry is one of the forms of
the Divine Life upon earth. Nb one may ever hope
to define a spirit so gracious, an order so benign, an
influence so prophetic of the present and future up-
building of the race.

There is a common notion that Masonry is a se-
cret society, and this idea is based on the secret rites
used in its initiations, and the signs and grips by
which its members recognize each other. Thus it
has come to pass that the main aims of the Order
are assumed to be a secret policy or teaching,^ where-

1 Much has been written about the secrecy of Masonry. Hutchin-
son, in his lecture on “The Secrecy of Masons/’ lays all the stress
upon its privacy as a shelter for the gentle ministry of Charity
{Spirit of Masonry, lecture x) . Arnold is more satisfactory in his
essay on “The Philosophy of Mystery,” quoting the words of Car-
lyle in Sartor Resartns : “Bees will not work except in darkness ;
thoughts will not work except in silence; neither will virtue work
except in secrecy” {History and Philosophy of Masonry, chap,
xxi). But neither writer seems to realize the psychology and peda-
gogy of secrecy — the value of curiosity, of wonder and expectation,
in the teaching of great truths deemed commonplace because old.
Even in that atmosphere, the real secret of Masonry remains hidden
to many — as sunlight hides the depths of heaven.

244

THE BUILDERS

as its one great secret is that it has no secret. Its
principles are published abroad in its writings ; its
purposes and laws are known, and the times and
places of its Tliiigjdngs. Having come down from
dark days of persecution, when all the finer things
sought the protection of seclusion, if it still adheres
to secret rites, it is not in order to hide the truth,
but the better to teach it more impressively, to train
men in its pure service, and to promote union and
amity upon earth. Its signs and grips serve as a
kind of universal language, and still more as a gra-
cious cover for the practice of sweet charity — mak-
ing it easier to help a fellow man in dire plight with-
out hurting his self-respect. If a few are attracted
to it by curiosity, all remain to pray, finding them-
selves members of a great historic fellowship of the
seekers and finders of God.^ It is old because it is
true ; had it been false it would have perished long
ago. When all men practice its simple precepts, the
innocent secrets of Masonry will be laid bare, its
mission accomplished, and its labor done.

II

Recalling the emphasis of the foregoing pages, it
need hardly be added that Masonry is in no sense a

Kead the noble chapter on “Prayer as a Masonic Obligation,” in
PfacUcal Masonic Itcciurest by Samuel Lawrence (lecture x) .

WHAT IS MASONRY

245

political party, still less a society organized for social
agitation. Indeed, because Masonry stands apart
from partisan feud and particular plans of social re-
form, she has been held up to ridicule equally by the
unthinking, the ambitious, and the impatient. Her
critics on this side are of two kinds. There are
those who hold that the humanitarian ideal is an
error, maintaining that human nature has no moral
aptitude, and can be saved only by submission to a
definite system of dogma. Then there are those who
look for salvation solely in political action and social
agitation, who live in the delusion that man can be
made better by passing laws and counting votes, and
to whom Masonry has nothing to offer because in its
ranks it permits no politics, much less party rancor.
Advocates of the first view have fought Masonry
from the beginning with the sharpest weapons,
while those who hold the second view regard it with
contempt, as a thing useless and not worth fighting.^

Neither adversary understands Masonry and its
cult of the creative love for humanity, and of each
man for his fellow, without which no dogma is of
any woi th ; lacking which, the best laid plans of
social seers “gang aft aglee.” Let us look at things
as they are. That we must press forward towards

^Read a thoughtful **Expos5tJon of Freemasonry," by Dr. Paul
Carus, Open Coi^rtt May, 1913.

246

THE BUILDERS

righteousness — that we must hunger and thirst
after a social life that is true and pure, just and mer-
ciful — all will agree ; but they are blind who do not
see that the way is long and the process slow. What
is it that so tragically delays the march of man to-
ward the better and wiser social order whereof our
prophets dream? Our age, like the ages gone be-
fore, is full of schemes of every kind for the reform
and betterment of mankind. Why do they not suc-
ceed? Some fail, perhaps, because they are impru-
dent and ill-considered, in that they expect too much
of human nature and do not take into account the
stubborn facts of life. But why does not the wisest
and noblest plan do more than half what its advo-
cates hope and pray and labor so heroically to bring
about? Because there are not enough men fine
enough of soul, large enough of S3rmpathy, sweet
enough of spirit, and noble enough of nature to
make the dream come true!

There are no valid arguments against a great-
spirited social justice but this — that men will not.
Indolence, impurity, greed, injustice, meanness of
spirit, the aggressiveness of authority, and above all
jealousy — these are the real obstacles that thwart
the nobler social aspiration of humanity. There are
too many men like The Master-Builder who tried to
build higher than any one else, without regard to

WHAl' IS MASONRY 247

others, all for his own selfish glory. Ibsen has shown
us how The Pillars of Society, resting on rotten
foundations, came crashing down, wounding the in-
nocent in their wreck. I^ong ago it was said that
^'through wisdom is an house builded, and by under-
standing it is established; and by knowledge shall
the chambers be filled with pleasant and precious
riches.” ^ Time has shown that the House of Wis-
dom must be founded upon righteousness, justice,
purity, character, faith in God and love of man, else
it will fall when the floods descend and the winds
beat upon it. What we need to make our social
dreams come true is not more laws, not more dog-
mas, not less liberty, but better men, cleaner minded,
more faithful, with loftier ideals and more heroic in-
tegrity; men who love the right, honor the truth,
worship purity, and prize liberty — upright men
who meet all horizontals at a perfect angle, assur-
ing the virtue and stability of the social order.

Therefore, when Masonry, instead of identifying
itself with particular schemes of reform, and thus
becoming involved in endless turmoil and dispute,
estranging men whom she seeks to bless, devotes all
her benign energy and influence to ennobling the
souls of men, she is doing fundamental work in be-
half of all high enterprises. By as much as she suc-

1 Proverbs 24:3, 4.

248 the buieders

ceeds, every noble cause succeeds; by as much as she
fails, everything fails 1 By its ministry to the in-
dividual man — drawing him into the circle of a
great friendship, exalting his faith, refining his
ideals, enlarging his sympathies, and setting his feet
in the long white path — Masonry best serves so-
ciety and the state.^ While it is not a reformatory,
it is a center of moral and spiritual power, and its
power is used, not only to protect the widow and or-
phan, but also, and still more important, to remove
the cause of their woe and need by making men just,
gentle, and generous to all their fellow mortals.
Who can measure such a silent, persistent, unrest-
ing labor; who can describe its worth in a world of
feud, of bitterness, of sorrow !

jjNo one needs to be told that we are on the eve, if
not in the midst, of a most stupendous and laewilder-
ing revolution of social and industrial life. It shakes
England today. It makes France tremble tomor-
row. It alarms America next week. Men want

^ While Masonry abjures political questions and disputes in its
I«odges, it IS all the while training good citizens, and through the
quality of its men it influences public life — as Washington, Frank-
lin, and Marshall carried the spirit of Masonry into the organic law
of this republic. It is not politics that corrupts character ; it is bad
character that corrupts politics — and by building men up to spiritual
faith and character, Masonry is helping to build up a state that will
endure the shocks of time; a nobler structure than ever was wrought
of mortar and marble (The Principles of Preemasonry in the Life
of Pfafions, by Findel),

WHAT IS MASONRY

249

shorter hours, higher wages, and better homes — of
course they do — but they need, more than these
things, to know and love each other ; for the ques-
tions in dispute can never be settled in an air of hos-
tility. If they are ever settled at all, and settled
right, it must be in an atmosphere of mutual recog-
nition and respect, such as Masonry seeks to create
and make prevail. Whether it be a conflict of na-
tions, or a clash of class with class, appeal must be
made to intelligence and the moral sense, as befits
the dignity of man. Amidst bitterness and strife
Masonry brings men of every rank and walk of life
together as men, and nothing else, at an altar where
they can talk and not fight, discuss and not dispute,
and each may learn the point of view of his fellow.
Other hope there is none save in this spirit of friend-
ship and fairness, of democracy and the fellowship of
man with man. Once this spirit has its way with
mankind, it will bring those brave, large reconstruc-
tions, those profitable abnegations and brotherly
feats of generosity that will yet turn human life into
a glad, beautiful, and triumphant cooperation all
round this stmlit world.

Surely the way of Masonry is wise. Instead of
becoming only one more factor in a world of fac-
tional feud, it seeks to remove all hostility which may
arise from social, national, or religious differences.
It helps to heal the haughtiness of the rich and the

250 THE BUILDERS

envy of the poor, and tends to establish peace on
earth by allaying all fanaticism and hatred on ac-
count of varieties of language, race, creed, and even
color, while striving to make the wisdom of the past
available for the culture of men in faith and purity.
Not a party, not a sect, not a cult, it is a great order
of men selected, initiated, sworn, and trained to
make sweet reason and the will of God prevail!
Against the ancient enmities and inhumanities of
the world it wages eternal war, without vengeance,
without violence, but by softening the hearts of men
and inducing a better spirit. Apparitions of a day,
here for an hour and tomorrow gone, what is our
puny warfare against evil and ignorance compared
with the warfare which this venerable Order has
been waging against them for ages, and will con-
tinue to wage after we have fallen into dust !

Ill

Masonry, as it is much more than a political party
or a social cult, is also more than a church — unless
we use the word church as Ruskin used it when he
said: ‘'There is a true church wherever one hand
meets another helpfully, the only holy or mother
church that ever was or ever shall be!” It is true
that Masonry is not a religion, but it is Religion, a
worship in which all good men may unite, that each

WHAT IS MASONRY 251

may share the faith of all. Often it has been ob-
jected that some men leave the Church and enter the
Masonic I^odge, finding there a religious home.
Even so, but that may be the fault, not of Masonry,
but of the Church so long defamed by bigotry and
distracted by sectarian feud, and which has too often
made acceptance of abstract dogmas a test of its f el-
lowship.^ Naturally many fine minds have been
estranged from the Church, not because they were
irreligious, but because they were required to be-
lieve what it was impossible for them to believe;
and, rather than sacrifice their integrity of soul, they
have turned away from the last place from which a
man should ever turn away. No part of the ministry
of Masonry is more beautiful and wise than its ap-
peal, not for tolerance, but for fraternity; not for
uniformity, but for unity of spirit amidst varieties

1 Not a little confusion has existed, and still exists, in regard to
the relation of Masonry to religion. Dr. Mackey said that old Craft-
masonry was sectarian (Sytnbolisiti of Masonry ) ; but it was not
more so than Dr. Mackey himself, who held the curious theory that
the religion of the Hebrews was genuine and that of the Egyptians
spurious. Nor is there any evidence that Craft-maSonry was sec-
tarian, but much to the contrary, as has been shown in reference to
the invocations in the Old Charges, At any rate, if it was ever sec-
tarian, it ceased to be so with the organization of the Grand Lodge
of England. Later, some of the chaplains of the order sought to
identify Masonry with Christianity, as Hutchinson did — and even
Arnold in his chapter on ‘‘Christianity and Freemasonry” (History
and Philosophy of Masonry). All this confusion results from a

252

THE BUILDERS

of outlook and opinion. Instead of criticizing Ma-
sonry, let us thank God for one altar where no man
is asked to surrender his liberty of thought and be-
come an indistinguishable atom in a mass of sec-
tarian agglomeration. What a witness to the worth
of an Order that it brings together men of all creeds
in behalf of those truths which are greater than all
sects, deeper than all doctrines — the glory and the
hope of man !

While Masonry is not a church, it has religiously
preserved some things of highest importance to the
Church — among them the right of each individual
soul to its own religious faith. Holding aloof from
separate sects and creeds, it has taught all of them

misunderstanding of wbat religion is. Religions are many; religion
is one — perhaps we may say one thing, but that one thing includes
everything — the life of God in the soul of man, which finds ex-
pression in all the forms which life and love and duty take This
conception of religion shakes the poison out of all our wild fiowers,
and shows us that it is the inspiration of all scientific inquiry, all
striving for liberty, all virtue and charity ; the spirit of all thought,
the motif of all great music, the soul of all sublime literaturei The
church has no monopoly of religion, nor did the Bible create it.
Instead, it was religion — the natural and simple trust of the soul
in a Power above and within it, and its quest of a right relation to
that Power — that created the Bible and ihe Church, and, indeed, all
our higher human life. The soul of man is greater than all books,
deeper than all dogmas, and more enduring than all institutions.
Masonry seeks to free men from a limiting conception of religion,
and thus to remove one of the chief causes of sectarianism. It is
itself one of the forms of beauty wrought by the human soul under
the inspiration of the Eternal Beauty, and as such is religious.

WHAT IS MASONRY

253

how to respect and tolerate each other ; asserting a
principle broader than any of them — the sanctity
of the soul and the duty of every man to revere, or
at least to regard with charity, what is sacred to his
fellows. It is like the crypts underneath the old
cathedrals — a place where men of every creed who
long for something deeper and truer, older and
newer than they have hitherto known, meet and
unite. Having put away childish things, they find
themselves made one by a profound and childlike
faith, each bringing down into that quiet crypt his
own pearl of great price —

The Hindu his innate disbelief in this world, and his
unhesitating belief in another world; the Buddhist his
perception of an eternal law, his submission to it, his gen-
tleness, his pity; the Mohammedan, if nothing else, his
sobriety; the Jew his clinging, through good and evil
days, to the one God who loveth righteousness, and whose
name is “I AM the Christian, that which is better than
all, if those who doubt it would try it — our love of God,
call Him what you will, manifested in our love of man,
our love of the living, our love of the dead, our living and
undying love. Who knows but that the crypt of the past
may become the church of the future?^

Of no one age. Masonry belongs to all ages; of no
one religion, it finds g^eat truths in all religions.
Indeed, it holds that truth which is common to all
elevating and benign religions, and is the basis of

I Chijis from a German Workshop, by Max Muller.

254

THE BUIEDERS

each ; that faith which underlies all sects and over-
arches all creeds, like the sky above and the river bed
below the flow of mortal years. It does not under-
take to explain or dogmatically to settle those ques-
tions or solve those dark mysteries which out-top
human knowledge. Beyond the facts of faith it does
not go. With the subtleties of speculation concern-
ing those truths, and the unworldly envies growing
out of them, it has not to do. There divisions begin,
and Masonry was not made to divide men, but to
unite them, leaving each man free to think his own
thought and fashion his own system of ultimate
truth. All its emphasis rests upon two extremely
simple and profound principles — love of God and
love of man. Therefore, all through the ages it has
been, and is today, a meeting place of differing
minds, and a prophecy of the final union of all rev-
erent and devout souls.

Time was when one man framed a dogma and de-
clared it to be the eternal truth. Another man did
the same thing, with a different dogma; then the
two began to hate each other with an unholy hatred,
each seeking to impose his dogma upon the other —
and that is an epitome of some of the blackest pages
of history. Against those old sectarians who sub-
stituted intolerance for charity, persecution for
friendship, and did not love God because they hated

WHAT IS MASONRY

255

their neighbors, Masonry made eloquent protest,
putting their bigotry to shame by its simple insight,
and the dignity of its golden voice, A vast change
of heart is now taking place in the religious world,
by reason of an exchange of thought and courtesy,
and a closer personal touch, and the various sects,
so long estranged, are learning to unite upon the
things most worth while and the least open to de-
bate. That is to say, they are moving toward the
Masonic position, and when they arrive Masonry
will witness a scene which she has prophesied for
ages.

At last, in the not distant future, the old feuds of
the sects will come to an end, forgotten in the dis-
covery that the just, the brave, the true-hearted are
everywhere of one religion, and that when the masks
of misunderstanding are taken off they know and
love one another. Our little dogmas will have their
day and cease to be, lost in the vision of a truth so
great that all men are one in their littleness; one
also in their assurance of the divinity of the soul and
“the kindness of the veiled Father of men.” Then
men of every name will ask, when they meet:

Not what is your creed?

But what is your need?

High above all dogmas that divide, all bigotries that
blind, all bitterness that beclouds, will be written the

THE BUIEDERS

256

simple words of the one eternal religion — ’the
Eatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the
moral law, the golden rule, and the hope of a life
everlasting !

I'HE ‘MASONIC PHILOSOPHY

Masonry directs tis to divest ourselves of con-
fined and bigoted notions j and teaches us, that
Humanity is the soul of Religion, We never suf-
fer any religious disputes in our Lodges, and,
as Masons, toe only pursue the universal religion,
the Religion of Nature. Worshipers of the God
of Mercy, we believe that in every nation, he that
feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accept-
ed of Him. All Masons, therefore, whether Chris-
tians, Jews, or Mahomedans, who violate not the
rule of right, written by the Almighty upon the
tables of the heart, who ix) fear Him, and work
righteousness, we are to acknowledge as brethren;
and, though we take different roads, we are not
to be angry with, or persecute each other on that
account. We mean to travel to the same place;
we know that the end of our journey is the same;
and we affectionately hope to meet in the Lodge
of perfect happiness. How lovely is an institu-
tion fraught with sentiments like these! How
agreeable must it be to Him who is seated on a
throne of Bverlasting Mercy, to the God who is
no respecter of persons I

— Wm. Hutchinson, The Spirit of Masonry

CHAPTER II

The Masonic Philosophy

H ast any philosophy in thee. Shepherd?” ^ was
the question of Touchstone in the Shake-
speare play; and that is the question we must always
ask ourselves. Tong ago Kant said that it is the
mission of philosophy, not to discover truth, but to
set it in order, to seek out the rhythm of things and
their reason for being. Beginning in wonder, it
sees the familiar as if it were strange, and its mind
is full of the air that plays round every subject.
Spacious, humane, eloquent, it is “a blend of science,

^As You Ifike li (act ii, scene ii). Shakespeare makes no refer-
ence to any secret society^ but some of his allusions suggest that he
knew more than he wrote. He describes “The singing Masons build-
ing roofs of gold" {Henry F, act i, scene ii), and compares them
to a swarm of bees at work. Did he know what the bee hive means
in the symbolism of Masonry? (Read an interesting article on
“Shakespeare and Freemasonry,” American PreemasoUf January,
1912.) It reminds one of the passage in the Complete Angler ^ by
Isaak Walton, in which the gentle fisherman talks about the meaning
of Pillars in language very like that used in the Old Charges, But
Hawkins in his edition of the Angler recalls that Walton was a
friend of Elias Ashmole, and may have learned of Masonry from
him. {A Short Masonic History, by F. Armitage, vol. ii, chap. 3.)

26 o

THE builders

poetry, religion and logic” ‘ — a softening, enlarg-
ing, ennobling influence, giving us a wider and
clearer outlook, more air, more room, more light,
and more background.

When we look at Masonry in this large and mel-
low light, it is like a stately old cathedral, gray with
age, rich in associations, its steps worn by innumer-
able feet of the living and the dead — not piteous,
but strong and enduring. Entering its doors, we
wonder at its lofty spaces, its windows with the dim-
ness and glory of the Infinite behind them, the
spring of its pillars, the leap of its arches, and its
roof inlaid with stars. Inevitably we ask, whence
came this temple of faith and friendship, and what
does it mean — rising lightly as a lyric, uplifted by
the hunger for truth and the love for beauty, and
exempt from the shock of years and the ravages of
decay? What faith builded this home of the soul,
what philosophy underlies and upholds it? Truly
did Eongfellow sing of The Builders'.

In the elder years of art,

Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and hidden part,

Eor the gods see eveiywhere.

I

If we examine the foundations of Masonry, we
find that it rests upon the most fundamental of all

1 Some Prohlems of Philosophy, hy William James.

THE MASONIC PHILOSOPHY 261

P

truths, the first truth and the last, the sovereign and
supreme Reality. Upon the threshold of its Lodges
every man, whether prince or peasant, is asked to
confess his faith in God the Father Almighty, the
Architect and Master-Builder of the Universe."^
That is not a mere form of words, but the deepest
and most solemn affirmation that human lips can

^ In 1877 the Grand Orient of France removed the Bible from its
altar and erased from its ritual all reference to Deity; and for so
doing it was disfellowshiped by nearly every Grand I<odge in the
world. The writer of the article on "Masonry” in the Catholic
cyclopedia recalls this fact with emphasis ; but he is much fairer to
the Grand Orient than many Masonic writers have been. He under-
stands that this does not mean that the Masons of France are atheistic,
as that word is ordinarily used, but that they do not believe that
there exist Atheists in the ahsohite sense of the word; and he quotes
the words of Albert Pike ; "A man who has a higher conception of
God than those about him, and who denies that their conception ir
God, is very likely to be called an Atheist by men who are really
far less believers in God than he” (Morals and DogmOt p, 643).
Thus, as Pike goes on to say, the early Christians, who said the
heathen idols were no Gods, were accounted Atheists, and accord^
ingly put to death. We need not hold a brief for the Grand Orient,
but'it behooves us to understand its position and point of view, lest
we be found guilty of a petty bigotry in regard to a word when the
reality is a common treasure. First, it was felt that France needed
the aid of every man who was an enemy of lAtin ecdesiasticism, in
order to bring about a separation of Chyrch and State; hence the
attitude of the Grand Orient Second, the Masons of France agree
with Plutarch that no conception of Cod at all is better than a dark,
distorted superstition which wraps men in terror; and they erased
a word which, for many, was associated with an unworthy faith —
the better to seek a unity of effort in behalf of liberty of thought and
a loftier faith. (The Religion of Pluiarcht by Oakesmith; also the
Bacon essay on Superstition) We may deem this unwise, but we
ought at least to understand its spirit and purpose.

262

I'HE BUIEDKRS

make. To be indifferent to God is to be indifferent
to the greatest of all realities, that upon which the
aspiration of humanity rests for its uprising passion
of desire. No institution that is dumb concerning
the meaning of life and the character of the uni-
verse, can last. It is a house built upon the sand,
doomed to fall when the winds blow and floods beat
upon it, lacking a sure foundation. No human fra-
ternity that has not its inspiration in the Fatherhood
of God, confessed or unconfessed, can long endure;
it is a rope of sand, weak as water, and its fine senti-
ment quickly evaporates. Life leads, if we follow
its meanings and think in the drift of its deeper con-
clusions, to one God as the ground of the world, and
upon that ground Masonry lays her corner-stone.
Therefore, it endures and grows, and the gates of
hell cannot prevail against it!

While Masonry is theocratic in its faith and phil-
osophy,^ it does not limit its conception of the Divine,
much less insist upon any one name for “the Name-
less One of a hundred names.” Indeed, no feature
of Masonry is more fascinating than its age-long
quest of the Lost Word,^ the Ineffable Name; a
quest that never tires, never tarries, knowing the

^ Theocratic Philosophy of Preemasonry, by Oliver.

* “History of the llost Word,” by J. F. Garrison, appendix to
Early History and Antiquities of Preemasonry, by G. F, Fort — one
of the most brilliant Masonic books, both in scholarship and literary
style. '

THE MASONIC PHILOSOPHY 263

while that every name is inadequate, and all words
are but s3unbols of a Truth too great for words —
every letter of the alphabet, in fact, having been
evolved from some primeval sign or signal of the
faith and hope of humanity. Thus Masonry, so far
from limiting the thought of God, is evermore in
search of a more satisfying and revealing vision of
the meaning of the universe, now luminous and love-
ly, now dark and terrible; and it invites all men to
unite in the quest —

One in the freedom of the Truth,

One in the joy of paths untrod.

One in the soul’s perennial Youth,

One in the larger thought of God.

Truly the human consciousness of fellowship with
the Eternal, under whatever name, may well hush
all words, still more hush argument and anathema.
Possession, not recognition,, is the only thing im-
portant; and if it is not recognized, the fault must
surely be, in large part, our own. Given the one
great experience, and before long kindred spirits
will join in the Universal Prayer of Alexander
Pope, himself a Mason :

Father of all! in every age,

In every clime adored.

By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord !

With eloquent unanimity our Masonic thinkers

264 'THE BUILDERS

proclaim the unity and love of God — whence their
vision of the ultimate unity and love of mankind —
to be the great truth of the Masonic philosophy; the
unity of God and the immortality of the soul/
Amidst polytheisms, dualisms, and endless confu-
sions, they hold it to have been the great mission of
Masonry to preserve these precious truths, beside
which, in the long result of thought and faith, all
else fades and grows dim. Of this there is no doubt;
and science has come at last to vindicate this wise
insight, by unveiling the unity of the universe with
overwhelming emphasis. Unquestionably the uni-
verse is an inexhaustible wonder. Still, it is a won-
der, not a contradiction, and we can never find its
rh3dhm save in the truth of the unity of all things

^Syfnhotisnt of Masonry^ by Dr. Mackey (chap, i) and other
books too many to name It need hardly be said that the truth of
the trinity, whereof the triangle is an emblem — though with Pythag-
oras it was a symbol of hohness, of health — was never meant to
contradict the unity of God, but to make it more vivid. As too often
interpreted, it is little more than a crude tri-theism, but at its best
it is not so. “God ihrice, not three Gods,” was the word of St Au-
gustine {Bssay on the Trinity), meaning three aspects of God —
not the mathematics of His nature, but its manifoldness, its variety
m unity* The late W. N. Clarke — who put more common sense
into theology than any other man of his day— pointed out that, in
our time, the old debate about the trinity is as dead as Caesar ; the
truth of God as a Father having taken up into itself the warmth,
color, and tenderness of the truth of the trinity — which, as said on
an earlier page, was a vision of God through the family (Christian
Doctfiite of God),

THE MASONIC PHIEOSOPHY 265

in God. Other clue there is none. Down to this
deep foundation Masonry digs for a basis of its
temple, and builds securely. If this be false or un-
stable, then is

The pillar’d firmament rottenness,

And earth’s base built on stubble.

Upon the altar of Masonry lies the open Bible
which, despite the changes and advances of the ages,
remains the greatest Modern Book — the moral
manual of civilization.^ All through its pages,
through the smoke of Sinai, through "the forest of
the Psalms,” through proverbs and parables, along
the dreamy ways of prophecy, in gospels and epistles
is heard the everlasting truth of one God who is
love, and who requires of men that they love one
another, do justly, be merciful, keep themselves un-
spotted by evil, and walk humbly before Him in
whose great hand they stand. There we read of the
Man of Galilee who taught that, in the far distances
of the divine Eatherhood, all men were conceived in
love, and so are akin — united in origin, duty, and
destiny. Therefore we are to relieve the distressed,
put the wanderer into his way, and divide our bread
with the hiuigry, which is but the way of doing good

^ Tht Bihkj ihi Great Source of Masomc Secrets and Observ-
ances, ty Dr. Olivet* No Mason need be told what a large place the
Bible has in the symbolism, ritual, and teaching of the Order, and
it has an equally large place in its literature.

266

THH BUILDERS

to ourselves; for we are all members of one great
family, and the hurt of one means the injury of all.

This profound and reverent faith from which, as
from a never-failing spring, flow heroic devotedness,
moral self-respect, authentic sentiments of frater-
nity, inflexible fidelity in life and effectual consola-
tion in death. Masonry has at all times religiously
taught. Perseveringly it has propagated it through
the centuries, and never more zealously than in our
age. Scarcely a Masonic discourse is pronounced,
or a Masonic lesson read, by the highest officer or
the humblest lecturer, that does not earnestly teach
this one true religion which is the very soul of Ma-
sonry, its basis and apex, its light and power. Up-
on that faith it rests ; in that faith it lives and labors ;
and by that faith it will conquer at last, when the
noises and confusions of today have followed the
tangled feet that made them.

11

Out of this simple faith grows, by inevitable logic,
the philosophy which Masonry teaches in signs and
symbols, in pictures and parables. Stated briefly,
stated vividly, it is that behind the pageant of na-
. ture, in it and over it, there is a Supreme Mind
which initiates, impels, and controls all. That be-
hind the life of man and its pathetic story in history,

THE MASONIC PHIEOSOPHY 267

in it and over it, there is a righteous Will, the intel-
ligent Conscience of the Most High. In short, that
the first and last thing in the universe is mind, that
the highest and deepest thing is conscience, and that
the final reality is the absoluteness of love. High-
er than that faith cannot fly; deeper than that
thought cannot dig.

No deep is deep enough to show

The springs whence being starts to flow.

No fastness of the soul reveals
Life’s subtlest impulse and appeals.

We seem to come, we seem to go ;

But whence or whither who can know?

Unemptiable, unfillable,

It’s all in that one syllable —

God ! Only God. God first, God last.

God, infinitesimally vast;

God who is love, love which is God,

The rootless, everflowering rod I

There is but one real alternative to this philoso-
phy. It is not atheism — which is seldom more
than a revulsion from superstition — because the
adherents of absolute atheism are so few, if any,
and its intellectual position is too precarious ever to
be a menace. An atheist, if such there be, is an
orphan, a waif wandering the midnight streets of
time, homeless and alone. Nor is the alternative
agnosticism, which in the nature of things can be

268 thje: builders ,

only a passing mood of thought, when, indeed, it is
not a confession of intellectual bankruptcy, or a la-
bor-saving device to escape the toil and fatigue of
high thinking. It trembles in perpetual hesitation,
like a donkey equi-distant between two bundles of
hay, starving to death but unable to make up its
mind. No; the real alternative is materialism,
which played so large a part in philosophy fifty
years ago, and which, defeated there, has betaken
itself to the field of practical affairs. This is the
dread alternative of a denial of the great faith of
humanity, a blight which would apply a sponge to
all the high aspirations and ideals of the race. Ac-
cording to this dogma, the first and last things in
the universe are' atoms, their number, dance, com-
binations, and growth. All mind, all will, all emo-
tion, all character, all love is incidental, transitory,
vain. The sovereign fact is mud, the final reality is
dirt, and the decree of destiny is “dust unto dust!”

Against this ultimate horror, it need hardly be
said that in every age Masonry has stood as a wit-
ness for the life of the spirit. In the war of the
soul against dust, in the choice between dirt and
Deity, it has allied itself on the side of the great
idealisms and optimisms of humanity. It takes the
spiritual view of life and the world as being most in
accord with the facts of experience, the promptings

THE MASONIC PHILOSOPHY 269

of right reason, and the voice of conscience. In
other words, it dares to read the meaning of the
universe through what is highest in man, not
through what is lower, asserting that the soul is
akin to the Eternal Spirit, and that by a life of right-
eousness its eternal quality is revealed.^ Upon this
philosophy Masonry rests, and finds a rock beneath:

On Him, this corner-stone we build,

On Him, this edifice erect;

And still, until this work’s fulfilled,

May He the workman’s ways direct.

Now, consider ! All our human thinking, wheth-
er it be in science, philosophy, or religion, rests for
its validity upon faith in the kinship of man with

i-Read the great argument of Plato in The Republic (hook •«).
The present writer does not wish to impose upon Masonry any dog-
ma of technical Idealism, subjective, objective, or otherwise. No
more than others does he hold to a stadc universe which unrolls in
time a plan made out before, but to a world of wonders where life
has the risk and zest of adventure. He rejoices in the New Ideal-
ism of Rudolf Eucken, with its gospel of '*an independent spiritual
life'* — independent, that is, of vicissitude — and its insistence upon
the fact that the meaning of life depends upon our "building up
within ourselves a life that is not of time" (Life’s Basis and Life‘s
Ideal), But the intent of these pages is, rather, to emphasize the
spiritual view of life and the world as the philosophy underlying
Masonry, and upon which it builds — the reality of the ideal, its
sovereignty over our fragile human life, and the immutable neces-
sity of loyalty to it, if we are to build for eternity. After all, as
Plotinus said, philosophy "serves to point the way and guide the trav-
eller; the vision is for him who will see it" But the direction means
much to those who are seeking the truth to know it

270 THE BUIEDERS

p

God. If that faith be false, the temple of human
thought falls to wreck, and behold! we know not
anything and have no way of learning. But the
fact that the universe is intelligible, that we can
follow its forces, trace its laws, and make a map of
it, finding the infinite even in the infinitesimal, shows
that the mind of man is akin to the Mind that made
it. Also, there are two aspects of the nature of man
which lift him above the brute and bespeak his divine
heredity. They are reason and- conscience, both of
which are of more than sense and time, having their
source, satisfaction, and authority in an unseen,
eternal world. That is to say, man is a being who,
if not actually immortal, is called by the very law
and necessity of his being to live as if he were im-
mortal. Unless life be utterly abortive, having
neither rhyme nor reason, the soul of man is itself
the one sure proof and prophet of its own high faith.

Consider, too, what it means to say that this
mighty soul of man is akin to the Eternal Soul of all
things. It means that we are not shapes of mud
placed here by chance, but sons of the Most High,
citizens of eternity, deathless as God our Father is
deathless; and that there is laid upon us an abiding
obligation to live in a manner befitting the dignity
of the soul. It means that what a man thinks, the
parity of his feeling, the character of his activity

THE MASONIC PHIEOSOPHY 271

and career are of vital and ceaseless concern to the
Eternal. Here is a philosophy which lights up the
universe like a sunrise, confirming the dim, dumb
certainties of the soul, evolving meaning out of
mystery, and hope out of what would else be despair.
It brings out the colors of human life, investing our
fleeting mortal years — brief at their longest, brok-
en at its best — with enduring significance and
beauty. It gives to each of us, however humble and
obscure, a place and a part in the stupendous his-
torical enterprise; makes us fellow workers with the
Eternal in His redemptive making of humanity, and
binds us to do His will upon earth as it is done in
heaven. It subdues the intellect; it softens the
heart; it begets in the will that sense of self-respect
without which high and heroic living cannot be.
Such is the philosophy upon which Masonry builds ;
and from it flow, as from the rock smitten in the
wilderness, those bright streams that wander
through and water this human world of ours.

Ill

Because this is so ; because the human soul is akin
to God, and is endowed with powers to which no
one may set a limit, it is and of right ought to be
free. Thus, by the logic of its philosophy, not less
than the inspiration of its faith, Masonry has been

272

THE BUHvDERS

impelled to make its historic demand for liberty of
conscience, for the freedom of the intellect, and for
the right of all men to stand erect, unfettered, and
unafraid, equal before God and the law, each re^
specting the rights of his fellows. What we have to
remember is, that before this truth was advocated
by any order, or embodied in any political constitu-
tion, it was embedded in the will of God and the con-
stitution of the human soul. Nor will Masonry
ever swerve one jot or tittle from its ancient and
eloquent demand till all men, ever3nvhere, are free
in body, mind, and soul. As it is, Eowell was right
when he wrote:

We are not free : Freedom doth not consist
In musing with our faces toward the Past
While petty cares and crawling interests twist
Their spider threads about us, which at last
Grow strong as iron chains and cramp and bind
In formal narrowness heart, soul, and mind.

Freedom is recreated year by year,

In hearts wide open on the Godward side.

In souls calm-cadenced as the whirling sphere,

In minds that sway the future like a tide.

No broadest creeds can hold her, and no codes ;

She chooses men for her august abodes.

Building them fair and fronting to the dawn.

Some day, when, the cloud of prejudice has been
dispelled by the searchlight of truth, the world will

THE MASONIC PHILOSOPHY 273

honor Masonry for its service to freedom of thought
and the liberty of faith. No part of its history has
been more noble, no principle of its teaching has
been more precious than its age-long demand for the
right and duty of every soul to seek that light by
which no man was ever injured, and that truth
which makes man free. Down through the centu-
ries — often in times when the highest crime was not
murder, but thinking, and the human conscience was
a captive dragged at the wheel of the ecclesiastical
chariot — always and everywhere Masonry has
stood for the right of the soul to know the truth, and
to look up unhindered from the lap of earth into the
face of God. Not freedom from faith, but freedom
of faith, has been its watchword, on the ground that
as despotism is the mother of anarchy, so bigoted
dogmatism is the prolific source of scepticism —
knowing, also, that our race has made its most rapid
advance in those fields where it has been free the
longest.

Against those who would fetter thought in order
to perpetuate an effete authority, who would g^ve
the skinny hand of the past a scepter to rule the as-
piring and prophetic present, and seal the lips of
living scholars with the dicta of dead scholastics,
Masonry will never ground arms ! Her plea is for
government without tyranny and religion without

THE BUILDERS

274

superstition, and as surely as suns rise and set her
fight will be crowned with victory. Defeat is im-
possible, the more so because she fights not with
force, still less with intrigue, but with the power of
truth, the persuasions of reason, and the might of
gentleness, seeking not to destroy her enemies, but
to win them to the liberty of the truth and the fel-
lowship of love.

Not only does Masonry plead for that liberty of
faith which permits a man to hold what seems to him
true, but also, and with equal emphasis, for the lib-
erty which faith gives to the soul, emancipating it
from the despotism of doubt and the fetters of fear.
Therefore, by every art of spiritual culture, it seeks
to keep alive in the hearts of men a great and simple
trust in the goodness of God, in the worth of life,
and the divinity of the soul — a trust so apt to be
crushed by the tramp of heavy years. Help a man
to a firm faith in an Infinite Pity at the heart of this
dark world, and from how many fears is he free!
Once a temple of terror, haunted by shadows, his
heart becomes “a cathedral of serenity and glad-
ness,” and his life is enlarged and unfolded into
richness of character and service. Nor is there any
tyranny like the tyranny of time. Give a man a day
to live, and he is like a bird in a cage beating against
its bars. Give him a year in which to move to and

THE MASONIC PHIEOSOPHY 275

fro with his thoughts and plans, his purposes and
hopes, and you have liberated him from the despot-
ism of a day. Enlarge the scope of his life to fifty
years, and he has a moral dignity of attitude and a
sweep of power impossible hitherto. But give him
a sense of Eternity; let him know that he plans and
works in an ageless time; that above his blunders
and sins there hovers and waits the infinite — then
he is free !

Nevertheless, if life on earth be worthless, so is
immortality. The real question, after all, is not as
to the quantity of life, but its quality — its depth, its
purity, its fortitude, its fineness of spirit and gesture
of soul. Hence the insistent emphasis of Masonry
upon the building of character and the practice of
righteousness; upon that moral culture without
which man is rudimentary, and that spiritual vision
without which intellect is the slave of greed or pas-
sion. What makes a man great and free of soul,
here or anywhither, is loyalty to the laws of right, of
truth, of purity, of love, and the lofty will of God.
How to live is the one matter ; and the oldest man in
his ripe age has yet to seek a wiser way than to build,
year by year, upon a foundation of faith in God,
using the Square of justice, the Plumb-line of recti-
tude, the Compass to restrain the passions, and the
Rule by which to divide our time into labor, rest,

THE BUILDERS

276

and service to our fellows. Let us begin now and
seek wisdom in the beauty of virtue and live in the
light of it, rejoicing; so in this world shall we have
a foregleam of the world to come — bringing down
to the Gate in the Mist something that ought not to
die, assured that, though hearts are dust, as God
lives what is excellent is enduring !

IV

Bede the Venerable, in giving an account of the
deliberations of the King of Northumberland and
his counsellors, as to whether they should allow the
Christian missionaries to teach a new faith to the
people,’ recites this incident. After much debate, a
gray-haired chief recalled the feeling which came
over him on seeing a little bird pass through, on
fluttering wing, the warm bright hall of feasting,
while winter winds raged without. The moment
of its flight was full of sweetness and light for the
bird, but it was brief. Out of the darkness it flew,
looked upon the bright scene, and vanished into the
darkness again, none knowing whence it came nor
whither it went.

"Like this,” said the veteran chief, "is human life.
We come, our wise men cannot tell whence. We
ga, and they cannot tell whither. Our flight is
brief. Therefore, if there be anyone that can teach

THE MASONIC PHILOSOPHY 277

us more about it — in God’s name let us hear him !”

Even so, let us hear what Masonry has to say in
the great argument for the immortality of the soul.
But, instead of making an argument linked and
strong, it presents a picture — the oldest, if not the
greatest drama in the world — the better to make
men feel those truths which no mortal words can
utter. It shows us the black tragedy of life in its
darkest hour ; the forces of evil, so cunning yet so
stupid, which come up against the soul, tempting it
to treachery, and even to the degradation of saving
life by giving up all that makes life worth living; a
tragedy which, in its simplicity and power, makes
the heart ache and stand still. Then, out of the
thick darkness there rises, like a beautiful white star,
that in man which is most akin to God, his love of
truth, his loyalty to the highest, and his willingness
to go down into the night of death, if only virtue
may live and shine like a pulse of fire in the evening
sky. Here is the ultimate and final witness of our
divinity and immortality — the sublime, death-defy>
ing moral heroism of the human soul! Surely the
eternal paradox holds true at the gates of the grave :
he who loses his life for the sake of truth, shall find
it anew! And here Masonry rests the matter, as-
sured that since there is that in man which makes
him hold to the moral ideal, and the integrity of his

278

THE BUIEDERS

own soul, against all tlie brute forces of the world,
the God who made man in His own image will not
let him die in the dust! Higher vision it is not
given us to see in the dim country of this world;
deeper truth we do not need to know.

Working with hands soon to be folded, we build
up the structure of our lives from what our fingers
can feel, our eyes can see, and our ears can hear.
Till, in a moment — marvelous whether it come in
storm and tears, or softly as twilight breath beneath
unshadowed skies — we are called upon to yield our
grasp of tliese solid things, and trust ourselves to
the invisible Soul within us, which betakes itself
along an invisible path into the Unluiown. It is
strange : a door opens into a new world ; and man,
child of the dust that he is, follows his adventurous
Soul, as the Soul follows an inscrutable Power
which is more elusive than the wind that bloweth
where it listeth. Suddenly, with fixed eyes and
blanched lips, we lie down and wait; and life, well-
fought or wasted, bright or somber, lies behind us
— a dream that is dreamt, a thing that is no more.
O Death,

Thou hast.destroyed it,

The beautiful world.

With powerful fist :

In min ’tis hurled,

By the blow of a demigod shattered I
The scattered

THE MASONIC PHILOSOPHY 279

Fragments into the void we carry,

Deploring

The beauty perished beyond restoring.

Mightier

For the children of men,

Brightlier

Build it again,

In thine own bosom build it anew 1

O Youth, for whom these lines are written, fear
not; fear not to believe that the soul is as eternal as
the moral order that obtains in it, wherefore you
shall forever pursue that divine beauty which has
here so touched and transfigured you; for that is the
faith of humanity, your race, and those who are
fairest in its records. Let us lay it to heart, love it,
and act upon it, that we may learn its deep meaning
as regards others — our dear dead whom we think
of, perhaps, every day — and find it easier to be
brave and hopeful, even when we are sad. It is not
a faith to be taken lightly, but deeply and in the quiet
of the soul, if so that we may grow into its high
meanings for ourselves, as life grows or declines.

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul.

As the swift seasons roll !

Leave thy low-vaulted past 1 '

Let each new temple, nobler than the last.

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast.

Till thou at length art free.

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea !

28 o

BUILDERS

Nc/TQ— Here lies the meaning of the three grips whereby Masons
know one another in the dark as well as in the light. (1) Science,
assuming that the seat of the soul is in the brain, lays bare the skull,
dissects its hemispheres, traces its convolutions and nerves. Then
it subjects the brain of a dog to the same tests, and finds that it
and the brain of man are alike; obtains from both the same elements,
found everywhere. Science, so far from proving the immortality
of the soul, lays aside its instruments unable to prove that there is
a soul. Not by that grip can man be raised from a dead level to a
living perpendicular. (2) I/Ogic then tries to demonstrate that the
soul, in its nature, is indivisible, indestructible, and so immortal.
Plato, Cicero, and the rest formulated this argument; but if they
convinced others they did not convince themselves. Doubts re-
turned ; for at the most critical point upon which the conclusion de-
pended, there was a juggling of words. Not by that grip can man
be raised to walk in newness of life. (3) There remains the strong
grip of Faiths the profound, ineffaceable intuition of the soul it-
self; the voice of God speaking within; the Divine Word abiding
in the heart. How else has God ever revealed truth to man? How
else could He? Once we know that the soul is akin to God — man
a little brother of Him whom he seeks — we have a reach and grasp
and power of faith whereby we are lifted out of shadow into the
light (Ms. Lessons in Masonry^ by Albert Pike. House of the
Temple, Washington, D.C.)

How many Masons fail to grasp the master truth of the Master
Degree 1 And yet the candidate is not altogether to blame, since the
historical lecture does not even mention it, much less expound it.
That lecture only reminds the candidate that Masonry cherishes the
hope of a glorious immortality — that is all. Whereas in the De-
gree itself immortality is not a vague hope to be cherished here and
realized hereafter. It is a present reality into which the candidate
is symbolically initiated; a fact to be realized here and now. If our
ritual does not convey this truth, it behooves us to see that it does,
first by laying hold of the truth ourselves, and second by so shaping
our ceremony, or at least by so explaining it, as to make the truth
unmistakable. Manifestly, if we are immortal at all, we are im-
mortal now, and to know that fact is the one great human experi-
ence.

THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY

The crest and crowning of all good,

Lifers final star, is Brotherhood;

Por it will bnng aga%n to Barth
Her long4ost Poesy and Mirth;

Will send new light on every face,

A kingly power upon the race.

And till it comes we men are slaves.

And travel downward to the dust of graves.

Come, clear the way, then, clear the way:

Blind creeds and kings have had their day.
Break the dead branches from the path:

Our hope is in the aftermath —

Our hope is in heroic men.

Starred to build the world again,

T 0 this event the ages ran *

Make way for Brotherhood — make way for Man,
— Edwin Markham, Poems

CHAPTER III
The Spirit of Masonry

I

O UTSIDE of the home and the house of God
there is nothing in this world more beautiful
than the Spirit of Masonry. Gentle, gracious, and
wise, its mission is to form mankind into a great
redemptive brotherhood, a league of noble and free
men enlisted in the radiant enterprise of working
out in time the love and will of the Eternal. Who
is sufficient to describe a spirit so benign? With
what words may one ever hope to capture and detain
that which belongs of right to the genius of poetry
and song, by whose magic those elusive and impal-
pable realities find embodiment and voice?

With picture, parable, and stately drama, Ma-
sonry appeals to lovers of beauty, bringing poetry
and symbol to the aid of philosophy, and art to the
service of character. Broad and tolerant in its
teaching, it appeals to men of intellect, equally by
the depth of its faith and its plea for liberty of

THE BUILDERS

284

thought — helping them to think things through to
a more satisfying and hopeful vision of the meaning
of life and the mystery of the world. But its pro-
foundest appeal, more eloquent than all others, is to
the deep heart of man, out of which are the issues
of life and destiny. When all is said, it is as a man
thinketh in his heart whether life be worth while or
not, and whether he be a help or a curse to his race.

Here lies the tragedy of our race :

Not that men are poor;

All men know something of poverly.

Not that men are wicked ;

Who can claim to be good ?

Not that men are ignorant;

Who can boast that he is wise?

But that men are strangers I

Masonry is Friendship — friendship, first, with
the great Companion, of whom our own hearts tell
us, who is always nearer to us than we are to our-
selves, and whose inspiration and help is the great-
est fact of human experience. To be in harmony
with His purposes, to be open to His suggestions,
to be conscious of fellowship with Him — this is
Masonry on its Godward side. Then, turning man-
ward, friendship sums it all up. To be friends with
all men, however they may differ from us in creed,
color, or condition; to fill every human relation with
the spirit of friendship; is there anything more or

THE SPIRIT OP MASONRY 285

better than this that the wisest and best of men can
hope to do? ^ Such is the spirit of Masonry; such
is its ideal, and if to realize it all at once is denied
us, surely it means much to see it, love it, and labor
to make it come true.

Nor is this Spirit of Friendship a mere sentiment
held by a sympathetic, and therefore unstable, fra-
ternity, which would dissolve the concrete features
of humanity into a vague blur, of misty emotion.
No; it has its roots in a profound philosophy which
sees that the universe is friendly, and that men must
learn to be friends if they would live as befits the
world in which they live, as well as their own origin
and destiny. For, since God is the life of all that
was, is, and is to be; and since we are all born into

^Suggested by a noble passage in the Recollections of Wash-
ing^ton Gladden; and the great preacher goes on to say: '*!£ the
church could accept this truth — that Iteligion is Friendship — and
build its own life upon it, and make it central and organic in all its
teachings, should we not have a great revival of religion?” Indeed,
yes; and of the right kind of religion, tool Walt Whitman found
the basis of all philosophy, all religion, in ”the dear love of man for
his comrade, the attraction of friend to friend” (The Base of all
Metaphysics). As for Masonic literature, it is one perpetual psan
in praise of the practice of friendship, from earliest time to our
own day. Take, for example, the lllustratiom of Masonry, by
Freston (first book, sect i-x) ; and Arnold, as we have seen, defined
Masonry as Friendship, as did Hutchinson (The Spirit of Masonry,
lectures xi, xii). These are but two notes of a mighty anthem whose
chorus is never hushed in the temple of Masonry f Of course, there
are those who say that the finer forces of life are frail and foolish,
but the influence of the (^nic in the advance of the race is — nothing I

286

THE BUIEDERS

the world by one high wisdom and one vast love, we
are brothers to the last man of us, forever 1 Eor
better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness
and in health, and even after death us do part, all
men are held together by ties of spiritual kinship,
sons of one eternal Eriend, Upon this fact human
fraternity rests, and it is the basis of the plea of
Masonry, not only for freedom, but for friendship
among men.

Thus friendship, so far from being a mush of con-
cessions, is in fact the constructive genius of the uni-
verse. Love is ever the Builder, and those who have
done most to establish the City of God on earth have
been the men who loved their fellow men. Once let
this spirit prevail, and the wrangling sects will be
lost in a great league of those who love in the service
of those who suffer. No man will then revile the
faith in which his neighbor finds help for today and
hope for the morrow; pity will smite him mute, and
love will teach him that God is found in many ways,
by those who seek him with honest hearts. Once
let this spirit rule in the realm of trade, and the law
of the jungle will cease, and men will strive to build
a social order in which all men may have opportunity
“to live, and to live well,” as Aristotle defined the
purpose of society. Here is the basis of that magical
stability aimed at by the earliest artists when they

THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY 287

sought to build for eternity, by imitating on earth
the House of God.

II

Our human history, saturated with blood and
blistered with tears, is the story of man making
friends with man. Society has evolved from a feud
into a friendship by the slow growth of love and the
welding of man, first to his kin, and then to his kind.^
The first men who walked in the red dawn of time
lived every man for himself, his heart a sanctuary
of suspicions, every man feeling that every other
man was his foe, and therefore his prey. So there
were war, strife, and bloodshed. Slowly there came
to the savage a gleam of the truth that it is better to
help than to hurt, and he organized clans and tribes.
But tribes were divided by rivers and mountains,
and the men on one side of die river felt that the
men on the other side were their enemies. Again
there were war, pillage, and sorrow. Great empires
arose and met in the shock of conflict, leaving trails
of skeletons across the earth. Then came the great
roads, reaching out with their stony clutch and
bringing the ends of the earth together. Men met,
mingled, passed and repassed, and learned that hu-
man nature is much the same everywhere, with
^ The Neighhoft by N. S. Sbaler.

288

THE BUILDERS

hopes and fears in common. Still there were many
things to divide and estrange men from each other,
and the earth was full of bitterness. Not satisfied
with natural barriers, men erected high walls of
sect and caste, to exclude their fellows, and the men
of one sect were sure that the men of all other sects
were wrong — and doomed to be lost Thus, when
real mountains no longer separated man from man,
mountains were made out of molehills — mountains
of immemorial misunderstanding not yet moved into
the sea 1

Barriers of race, of creed, of caste, of habit, of
training and interest separate men today, as if some
malign genius were bent on keeping man from his
fellows, begetting suspicion, uncharitableness, and
hate. Still there are war, waste, and woe! Yet all
the while men have been unfriendly, and, therefore,
unjust and cruel, only because they are unac-
quainted, Amidst feud, faction, and folly, Masonry,
the oldest and most widely spread order, toils in be-
half of friendship, uniting men upon the only basis
upon which they can ever meet with dignity. Each
lodge is an oasis of equality and goodwill in a desert
of strife, working to weld mankind into a great
league of sympathy and service, which, by the terms
of our definition, it seeks to exhibit even now on a
small scale. At its altar men meet as man to man.

THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY 289

without vanity and without pretense, without fear
and without reproach, as tourists crossing the Alps
tie themselves together, so that if one slip all may
hold him up. No tongue can tell the meaning of
such a ministry, no pen can trace its influence in
melting the hardness of the world into pity and glad-
ness.

The Spirit of Masonry ! He who would describe
that spirit must be a poet, a musician, and a seer —
a master of melodies, echoes, and long, far-sound-
ing cadences. Now, as always, it toils to make man
better, to refine his thought and purify his sym-
pathy, to broaden his outlook, to lift his altitude, to
establish in amplitude and resoluteness his life in all
its relations. All its great history, its vast accumu-
lations of tradition, its simple faith and its solemn
rites, its freedom and its friendship are dedicated to
a high moral ideal, seeking to tame the tiger in man,
and bring his wild passions into obedience to the
will of God. It has no other mission than to exalt
and ennoble humanity, to bring light out of dark-
ness, beauty out of angularity ; to make every hard-
won inheritance more secure, every sanctuary more
sacred, every hope more radiant! ^

1 If Masons often fall far below their high Ideali it is because
they share in their degree the infirmity of mankind. He is a poof
craftsman who glibly recites the teachings of the Order and quickly
forgets the lessons they convey; who wears its honorable dress to

290

THE BUILDERS

The Spirit of Masonry ! Ay, when that spirit has
its way upon earth, as at last it surely will, society
will be a vast communion of kindness and justice,
business a system of human service, law a rule of
beneficence ; the home will be more holy, the laughter
of childhood more joyous, and tlie temple of prayer
mortised and tenoned in simple faith. Evil, in-
justice, bigotry, greed, and every vile and slimy
thing that defiles and defames humanity will skulk
into the dark, unable to bear the light of a juster,
wiser, more merciful order. Industry will be up-
right, education prophetic, and religion not a shad-
ow, but a Real Presence, when man has become ac-
quainted with man and has learned to worship God
by serving his fellows. When Masonry is victo-
rious every tyranny will fall, every bastile crumble,
and man will be not only unfettered in mind and
hand, but free of heart to walk erect in the light and
liberty of the truth.

Toward a great friendship, long foreseen by Ma-

conceal a self-seeking spirit; or to whom its great and simple sym-
bols bring only an outward thrill, and no inward urge toward the
highest of all good. Apart from what they symbolize, all symbols
are empty; they speak only to such as have ears to hear. At the
same time, we have always to remember — what has been so often
and so sadfy^ forgotten — that the most sacred shrine on earth is the
soul of man; and that the temple and its offices are not ends in
themselves, but only beautiful means to the end that every human
heart may be a temple of peace, of purity, of power, of pity, and
of hope!

THE SPIRIT OR MASONRY 291

sonic faith, the world is slowly moving, amid diffi-
culties and delays, reactions and reconstructions.
Of that day which will surely arrive, though long
deferred, when nations will be reverent in the use of
freedom, just in the exercise of power, humane in
the practice of wisdom; when no man will ride over
the rights of his fellows ; when no woman will be
made forlorn, no little child wretched by bigotry
or greed. Masonry has ever been a prophet. Nor
will she ever be content until all the threads of hu-
man fellowship are woven into one mystic cord of
friendship, encircling the earth and holding the race
in unity of spirit and the bonds of peace, as in the
will of God it is one in the origin and end. Having
outlived empires and philosophies, having seen gen-
erations appear and vanish, it will yet live to see the
travail of its soul, and be satisfied —

When the war-drum throbs no longer,

And the battle flags are furled;

In the parliament of man,

The federation of the world.

Ill

Manifestly, since love is the law of life, if men are
to be won from hate to love, if those who doubt and
deny are to be wooed to faith, if the race is ever to
be led and lifted into a life of service, it must be by
the fine art of Friendship. Inasmuch as this is the

292 THE BUIIvDERS

purpose of Masonry, its mission determines the
method not less than the spirit of its labor. Earn-
estly it endeavors to bring men — first the individual
man, and then, so far as possible, those who are
united with him — to love one another, while hold-
ing aloft, in picture and dream, that temple of char-
acter which is the noblest labor of life to build in the
midst of the years, and which will outlast time and
death. Thus it seeks to reach the lonely inner life
of man where the real battles are fought, and where
the issues of destiny are decided, now with shouts of
victory, now with sobs of defeat. What a ministry
to a young man who enters its temple in the morn-
ing of life, when the dew of heaven is upon his days
and the birds are singing in his heart ! ^

From the wise lore of the East Max Muller trans-
lated a parable which tells how the gods, having
stolen from man his divinity, met in council to dis-
cuss where they should hide it. One suggested that
it be carried to the other side of the earth and
buried; but it was pointed out that man is a great
wanderer, and that he might find the lost treasure
on the other side of the earth. Another proposed

^ Read the noble words of Arnold on the value of Masonry to
the young as a restraint, a refinement, and a conservator of virtue,
throwing about youth the mantle of a great friendship and the con-
secration of a great ideal (History and Philosophy of Masonry,
chap, xix).

THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY

293

that it be dropped into the depths of the sea; but the
same fear was expressed — that man, in his insa-
tiable curiosity, might dive deep enough to find it
even there. Finally, after a space of silence, the old-
est and wisest of the gods said: “Hide it in man
himself, as that is the last place he will ever think to
look for it!” And it was so agreed, all seeing at
once the subtle and wise strategy. Man did wander
over the earth, for ages, seeking in all places high
and low, far and near, before he thought to look
within himself for the divinity he sought. At last,
slowly, dimly, he began to realize that what he
thought was far off, hidden in “the pathos of dis-
tance,” is nearer than the breath he breathes, even
in his own heart.

Here lies the great secret of Masonry — that it
makes a man aware of that divinity within him,
wherefrom his whole life takes its beauty and mean-
ing, and inspires him to follow and obey it. Once a
man learns this deep secret, life is new, and the old
world is a valley all dewy to the dawn with a lark-
song over it. There never was a truer saying than,
that the religion of a man is the chief fact concerning
him.'^ By religion is meant not the creed to which
a man will subscribe, or otherwise give his assent;
not that necessarily; often not that at all — since

^Heroes and Hero-worship, by Thomas Carlyle, lecture i.

294 THK BUIIvDERS

we see men of all degrees of worth and worthless-
ness signing all kinds of creeds. No ; the religion
of a man is that which he practically believes, lays
to heart, acts upon, and thereby knows concerning
this mysterious universe and his duty and destiny in
it. That is in all cases the primary thing in him,
and creatively determines all the rest; that is his
religion. It is, then, of vital importance what faith,
what vision, what conception of life a man lays to
heart, and acts upon.

At bottom, a man is what his thinking is, thoughts
being the artists who give color to our days. Op-
timists and pessimists live in the same world, walk
under the same sky, and observe the same facts.
Sceptics and believers look up at the same great
stars — the stars that shone in Eden and will flash
again in Paradise. Clearly the difference between
them is a difference not of fact, but of faith — of
insight, outlook, and point of view — a difference
of inner attitude and habit of thought with regard
to the worth and use of life. By the same token,
any influence which reaches and alters that inner
habit and bias of mind, and changes it from doubt to
faith, from fear to courage, from despair to sun-
burst hope, has wrought the most benign ministry
which a mortal may enjoy. Every man has a train
of thought on which he rides when he is alone; and

THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY

295

the wortli o£ his life to himself and others, as well
as its happiness, depend upon the direction in which
that train is going, the baggage it carries, and the
country through which it travels. If, then. Mason-
ry can put that inner train of thought on the right
track, freight it with precious treasure, and start it
on the way to the City of God, what other or higher
ministry can it render to a man? And that is what
it does for any man who will listen to it, love it, and
lay its truth to heart.

High, fine, ineffably rich and beautiful are the
faith and vision which Masonry gives to those who
foregather at its altar, bringing to them in picture,
parable, and symbol the lofty and pure truth
wrought out through ages of experience, tested by
time, and found to be valid for the conduct of life.
By such teaching, if they have the heart to heed it,
men become wise, learning how to be both brave and
gentle, faithful and free ; how to renounce supersti-
tion and yet retain faith; how to keep a fine poise of
reason between the falsehood of extremes; how to
accept the joys of life with glee, and endure its ills
with patient valor ; how to look upon the folly of man
and not forget his nobility — in short, how to live
cleanly, kindly, calmly, open-eyed and unafraid in a
sane world, sweet of heart and full of hope. Whoso
lays this lucid and profound wisdom to heart, and

THK BUIIvDERS

296

lives by it, will have little to regret, and nothing to
fear, when the evening shadows fall. Happy the
young man who in the morning of his years makes
it his guide, philosopher, and friend.^

Such is the ideal of Masonry, and fidelity to all
that is holy demands that we give ourselves to it,
trusting the power of truth, the reality of love, and
the sovereign wortli of character. For only as we
incarnate that ideal in actual life and activity does it
become real, tangible, and effective. God works for
man through man and seldom, if at all, in any. other
way. He asks for our voices to speak His truth,
for our hands to do His work here below — sweet
voices and clean hands to make liberty and love pre-
vail over injustice and hate. Not all of us can be

the influence of Masonry upon youth is here emphasized, it
is not to forget that the most dangerous period of life is not youth,
•with its turmoil of storm and stress, but between forty and sixty.
When the enthusiasms of youth have cooled, and its rosy glamour
has faded into the light of common day, there is apt to be a letting
down of ideals, a hardening of heart, when cynicism takes the place
of idealism. If the judgments of the young are austere and need
to be softened by charity, the middle years of life need still more
the reenf or cement of spiritual influence and the inspiration of a holy
atmosphere. Also, Albert Pike used to urge upon old men the study
of Masonry, the better to help them gather up the scattered thoughts
about life and build them into a firm faith; and because Masonry
offers to every man a great hope and consolation. Indeed, its min-
istry to every period of life is benign. Studying Masonry is like
boking at a sunset; each man who looks is filled with the beauty
and wonder of it, but the glory is not diminished.

THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY 297

learned or famous, but each of us can be loyal and
true of heart, undefiled by evil, undaunted by error,
faithful and helpful to our fellow souls, Life is a
capacity for the highest things. Let us make it a
pursuit of the highest — an eager, incessant quest of
truth; a noble utility, a lofty honor, a wise freedom,
a genuine service — that through us the Spirit of
Masonry may grow and be glorified.

When is a man a Mason? When he can look
out over the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon
with Sf profound sense of his own littleness in the
vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and
courage — ■ which is the root of every virtue. When
he knows that down in his heart every man is as
noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely
as himself, and seeks to know, to forgive, and to
love his fellow man. When he knows how to sym-
pathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in their
sins — knowing that each man fights a hard fight
against many odds. When he has learned how to
make friends and to keep them, and above all how
to keep friends with himself. When he loves flow-
ers, can hunt the birds without a gun, and feels the
thrill of an old forgotten joy when he hears the
laugh of a little child. When he can be happy and
high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life.
When star-crowned trees, and the glint of sunlight

298

THE BUILDERS

on flowing waters, subdue him like the thought of
one much loved and long dead. When no voice of
distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks
his aid without response- When he finds good in
every faith that helps any man to lay hold of divine
things and sees majestic meanings in life, whatever
the name of that faith may be. When he can look
into a wayside puddle and see something beyond
mud, and into the face of the most forlorn fellow
mortal and see something beyond sin. When he
knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope. When
he has kept faith with himself, with his fellow man,
with his God; in his hand a sword for evil, in his
heart a bit of a song — glad to live, but not afraid
to die I Such a man has found the only real secret
of Masonry, and the one which it is trying to give
to all the world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(The literature of Masonry is very large, and the follow-
ing is only a small selection of such books as the writer has
found particularly helpful in the course of this study. The
notes and text of the foregoing pages mention many books,
sometimes with brief characterizations, and that fact renders
a longer list unnecessary here.)

Anderson, Book of Constitutions,

Armitage, Short Masoivic History^ 2 vols.

Arnold, History and Philosophy of Masonry,

Ashmole, Diary.

Aynsley, Symbolism East cmd West.

Bacon, New Atlantis.

Bayley, Lost Language of Symbolism.

Boutelle, The Man of Mt. Moriah.

Breasted, Religion and Thought in Egypt
Bromwell, Restorations of Masonic Geometry.

Budge, The Gods of Egypt

Callahan, WashingtoHj the Man and the Mason.

Capart, Primitive Art in Egypt.

Carr, The Stvastika.

Catholic Encyclopedia^ art. "Masonry.”

Churchward, Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man.
Churchward, The Arcana of Freemasonry.

Conder, Hole Craft and Fellowship of Masonry.

Crowe, Things a Freemason Ought to Know.

302

THE BUIIvDERS

Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra,

Da Costa, Dionysian Artificers,

Darrah, The Master's Assistant
De Clifford, Egypt the Cradle of Masonry,

De Quincey, Works ^ voL xvi.

Dill, Roman Life,

Encyclopedia Britannica, art. '‘Freemasonry.*'

Fergusson, History of Architecture,

Findel, History of Masonry,

Finlayson, Symbols of Freemasonry,

Fort, Early History and Antiquities of Masonry,

Gorringe, Egyptian Obelisks,

Gould, Atholl Lodges,

Gould, Concise History of Masonry,

Gould, Essays an Freemasanry,

Gould, History of Masonry, 4 vols.

Gould, Military Lodges,

Haige, Symbolism,

Harrison, Ancient Art amd Ritual,

Hartland, Ritual and Belief,

Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion, art. “Freemasonry.”
Hawkins, Concise Cyclopedia of Freemasonry.

Hayden, Washington md his Masonic Compeers,

Holland, Freemasonry and the Great Pyramid,

Hope, Historical Essay on Architecture.

Hughan, History of the English Rite,

Hughan, Masonic Sketches and Reprints.

Hughan and Stillson, History of Masonry and Concord-
ant Orders.

Hutchinson, The Spirit of Masonry,

Jewish Encyclopedia, art “Freemasonry.”

BIBUOGRAPHY

Kennedy, St* Paul and the Mystery-Religions*
Lawrence, Practical Masonic Lechtres,
Lawrence, Sidelights on Preemasonry*

Leicester Lodge of Research, Transactions.
Lessing, Ernst and Talk.

Lethaby, Architecture*

Lockyear, Dwwn of Astronomy.

Mackey, Encyclopedia of Preemasonry.

Mackey, Symbolism of Masonry,

Manchester Lodge of Research, Trcmsactions.
Marshall, Nature a Book of Symbols.

Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation.

Mead, Quests New and Old.

Moehler, Symbolism.

Moret, Kings and Gods of Egypt.

Morris, Lights and Shadows of Masonry.
Morris, The Poetry of Masonry.

Oliver, Masonic Antiquities.

Oliver, Masonic Sermons.

Oliver, Revelations of the Square.

Oliver, Theocratic Philosophy of Masonry.
Patton, Preemasonry^ its Symbolim*

Pike, Adorab and Dogma.

Plutarch, De hide et Osiride.

Pound, The Philosophy of Masonry.

Preston, Illustrations of Masonry.

Quatuor Coronati Lodge, Transactionss 24 vols.
Ravenscroft, The Comacines.

Reade, The Veil of Isb.

Rogers, History of Prices in England.

Ruskin, Seven Lamps of Architecture.

303

3^4

THE BUILDERS

Sachse, Franklin as a Mason.

Sadler, Masonic Facts and Fictions
St, Andrew's Lodge, Centennial Memorial,

Schure, Hermes and Plato.

Schure, Pythagoras.

Scott, The Cathedral Builders.

Sibley, The Story of Freemasonry.

Smith, Hnglish Guilds,

Steinbrenner, History of Masonry
Steiner, The Way of Initiation.

Stevens, Cyclopedia of Fraternities.

Stewart, Symbolical Teachings or Masonry and its Mes^
sage,

Tyler, Oaths, Their Origin, Nature, and History.
Underhill, Mysticism,

Vibert, Freemasonry Before the Grand Lodges.

Waite, Real History of Rosicrucians.

Waite, Secret Tradition in Masonry.

' Waite, Studies in Mysticism.

Watts, The Word m the Pattern.

Webster, Primitive Secret Societies.

Wright, Indian Masonry.

Yarker, Arcane Schools.

Yarker, Recapitulation of all Masonry.

Yarker, The Guild Charges.

INDEX

INDEX

lodge of, 161
Academic Armory: 166
Accepted Masons. 147; earliest,
160; not in all lodges, 160
note; first recorded, 161; and
Ashmole, 162-4; at Warring-
ton, 164; in the I/ondon Com-
pany, 165; and the Regius MS,
166; at Chester, 166; Assem-
bly of, 168; quality of, 163
^neas: referred to, 44 note
Ahiman Reaon: 216
Alban, St: in Old Charges, 116;
a town, not a man, 117 note;
and the Masons, 120
America : advent of Masonry in,
206; spirit of Masonry in, 222;
influence of Masonry on,
223

"Ancients, The": and Moderns,
212; Grand I^dge of, 216;
growth of, 217; merged into
universal Masonry, 221
Anderson, James ; his account
of Grand I^odge of England,
180; and the Old Charges,
186; sketch of, 187 note; on
Masonic secrets, 102 note; on
growth of Masonry, 203; pub-
lishes Book of Constitutions,
204

Andreae, J. V: quoted, 1S7; his
Rosicrucian romance, 163
Anti-Masonic political party,
228

Apprentice, Entered : require-
ments of, 129; moral code of,
130; masterpiece of, 131; de-
gree of, 144

Architects: early, 14; of Rome,
72; initiates, 73; honored in
Bgypt, 74; College of, 82;
Comacine, 88; churchmen, 114
Architecture: matrix of civiliza-
tion, 5; spiritual basis of, 6;
Seven Lamps of, 7 ; moral
laws of, 8; mysticism of, 9;
and astronomy, 77; gaps in
history of, 86 ; Italian, 87 ; and
the Comacines, 88; new light
on, 89; churchmen learn from
Masons, 114; Gothic, 120; es-
say on, 136; influence of Sol-
omon's Temple on, 191; no
older than history, 241
Ashmole, Elias: Diary of, 162;
not the maker of Masonry,
163; student of Masonry, 167
note; and Walton, 259 note
Assembly of Masons: at York,
117; semi-annual, 118; initia-
tions at, 131; before 1717, 167

THE BUILDERS

308

Atheist : does not exist, 261
note; would be an orphan, 267
Athelstan: and Masons, 116
Atholl Masons ; Grand I<odge
of, 216; power of, 217; end of,
221

Aubrey, John: 166; on conven-
tion of Masons, 167
Augustine, St: and Masons, 116

BabSl, Tow^ oe: 7
Bacon, Francis: 110; his New
Atlantis and Masonry, 179
notet 190

Benevolence: Board of, 188
Bible; Masonic symbols in, 32;

and Masonry, 265
Book of Constitutions: 187
Book of the Dead: 40
Booth, Edwin ; on Third degree,
197 ; a Mason, 232
Boston Tea Party: 224
Brotherhood: in Old Charges,
133; creed of Masonry, 134;
make way for coming of, 282
Builders: early ideals of, 12;
tools of, 26 ; in China, 31 ; for-
gotten, 34; orders of, 74; in
Rome, 79; of cathedrals^ 87;
servants of church, 101; of
Britain, 113; traveling bands
of, 135; rallying cries of, 191;
Eongfellow on, 260
Building: spiritual meaning of,
6, 7, 8; ideal of, 15; an alle-
gory, 154; two ways of, 158
note; of character, 275

Burns, Robert: 226; a Mason,
232; poet of Masonry, 233

Cantu, CnsARij; on Comacines,
142

Capart; quoted, 6
Carlyle, Thomas: quoted, 4
Cathedral Builders : 87 ; and
Masons, 91 ; greatness of, 121 ;
organization of, 136-7; genius
of, 158 note

Cathedrals : when built, 121
Charity: and Masons, 134; a
doctrine of Masonry, 172
China ; Masonry in, 30
Christianity; and the Mysteries,
SO, 51 note; and the Collegia,
85; and Masot^ry, 221 note,
251

Churchward; on Triangle, 13
note; on symbols, 20 note
Circle: meaning of, 27
Clay, Henry: 228
Cleopatra’s Needle; 33
Collegia, the: 73; beginning of,
80; customs of, 81; and the
Mysteries, 82 ; emblems of,
83; and Christianity, 85; and
cathedral builders, 87 ; in Eng-
land, 112; on the continent,
113

Column: Wren on, 9; Osiris,
45; "brethren of the,” 82
Comacine Masters; 87; priv-
ileges of, 88; migrations of,
89; symbols of, 90; tolerant of
spirit, 101; and Old Charges,

INDEX

309

111; in England, 113; Mer-
zana on, 114; and the arts,
115; degrees among, 142.
Companionage ; of France, IIS
note; and legend of Hiram,
149

Conder: historian of Masons'
•Company, 165
Confucius. 30

Cooke MS: 106; higher criti-
cism of, 107

Cowan : meaning of, 138 note
Coxe, Daniel ; 207
Craft-masonry : morality o f ,

134; lodge of, 135; organiza-
tion of, 136; routine of, 138;
technical secrets, 147
Cromwell, Oliver: and Mason-
ry, 179 note

Cross: antiquity of, 24; of
Egypt, 25

Cube: meaning of, 27
Culdees: 189

Da Cos'Ta ; quoted, 72 ; on Dion-
ysian Artificers, 77 note
Deacon: office of, 217
Death: old protest against, 40;
triumph over, 41; wonder of,
278

Declaration of Independence,
signed by Masons, 225
Defence of Masonry : quoted
152

Degrees in Masonry : 141 ;

among Comacines, 142; of
Apprentice, 144; number of,
145; evolution of, 149

De Molai: 101

De Quincey on Masonry, 179
note

Dermott, I^awrence : and An-
cient Grand Eodge, 216; in-
dustry 0 f, 219 ; and Royal
Arch Masonry, 220 note
Desaguliers, Dr. J, T: “co-fab-
ricator of Masonry,” 195 ;
sketch of, 195 note
Diocletian: fury of against Ma-
sons, 85

Dionysian Artificers: 72; build-
ers of Solomon's Temple, 76;
evidence for, 77 note; migra-
tions of, 79

Dissensions in Masonry: bitter,
213; causes of, 214; led by
Preston, 217; helped the or-
der, 219; remedy for, 222
Doctrine : the Secret, 57 ; resent-
ed, 58; open to all, 61; rea-
sons for, 63; what it is, 68
Drama of Faith: 39; motif of,
41; story of, 42; in India, 44
note; in Tyre, 76
Druids; Mysteries of, 49
Druses: and Masonry, 78 note
Dugdale: on formality in Ma-
sonry, 143

Eavesdroppers r their punish-
ment, 138 note

Egypt : earliest artists of, 9 ;
Herodotus on, 10; temples of,
11; obelisks of, 13; Drama of
Faith in, 41; and origin of
Masonry, 105, 109 note

THE BUILDERS

Elizabeth, Queen: and Masons,
123 note

Emerson, R, W : 39, 57
Euclid : mentioned in Regius
MS, 105; in Cooke MS, 107
Evans : on sacred stones, 9
Exposures of Masonry, 210

Qvi&tN£: quoted, 155
Faith: Drama of, 39; philosophy
of, 270

Fellowcraft: points of, 128;

rank of, 131 ; degree of, 146
Fichte: a Mason, 232
Findel : list of cartoons, 99 note ;

on Apprentice degree, 145
Francis of Assisi: quoted, 173
Franklin, B: on Masonic grips,
200; Masonic items in his pa^
per, 207; Grand Master of
Pennsylvania, 207; his Auto^
biographt 207 note
Frederick the Great: and Ma-
sonry, 205 note

Free-masons: 87; why called
free, 88; Furgusson on, 90;
Hallam on, 96; free in fact
before name, 98; great artists,
99; cartoons of the church by,
99 note; early date of name,
104 note; not Guild-masons,
118; contrasted with Guild-
masons, 119; organization of,
136; degrees among, 142-4
Friendship; Masonry deBned as,
240; genius of Masonry, 284*,
in Masonic literature, 285 ; the

ideal of Masonry, 288; as a
method of work, 291

Furgusson, James; 90; on tem-
ple of Solomon, 191

G: the letter, 159

Garibaldi: 230

Geometry: in Old Charges, 108;
Pythagoras on, 154; and re-
ligion, 1S4 note ; mystical
meaning of, 159

Gladden, Washington: quoted,
285

Gloves : use and meaning of,
137 note

God ; ideas of, 22 ; ''the Builder,"
29; invocations to in old MSS,
108, note; Fatherhood of, 134;
the Great Logician, 157; unity
of, 176 note, 264; foundation
of Masonry, 261; the corner
stone, 262; Masonry does not
limit, 263; wonder of, 267;
kinship of man with, 270 ;
friendship for, 284

Goethe: 232

Golden Rule ; law of Master
Mason, 133 ; creed of, 256

Gormogons : order of, parody on
Masonry, 209; swallows itself,
211

Gothic architecture : 120 ; decline
of, 185

Gould, R. F: on Regius MS,
106; on York Assembly, 116
note; on early speculative Ma-
sonry, 160

INDEX 311

Grand I<odge of all England,
218

Grand Eodge of England: 173;
meaning of organization, 174;
background of, 176; its atti-
tude toward religion, 177; or-
ganization of, 180; Lodges of,
181; facts about, 182; usages
of, 183; regalia of, 183 note;
a London movement, 184;
leaders of, 185 ; charity of,
188; growth of, 2Q2; prolific
mother, 204; article on poli-
tics, 206; rivals of, 213
Grand Lodge South of Trent,
218

Grand Master: office of, 182;
power of, 202

Green Dragon Tavern: 223; a
Masonic Lodge, 224
Gregory, Pope: and Masons, 113
Grips : in the Mysteries, 47 ;
among Druses, 78 note; among
Masons, 140; antiquity of, 149
note; number of, 141; Franks
lin on, 200; an aid to charity,
244

Guild-masonry: 98; invocations
in, 108; not Freemasonry,
118; truth about, 119; morality
of, 144

Hai,I 4 Am: on Freemasonry, 96;
on Guilds, 118

Halliwell, James : and Regius
MS: 104

Hamilton, Alexander: 225

Hammer, House of: 28
Handbnch, German : on Ma-
sonry, 241

Harleian MS: quoted, 126; in
Holme's hand-writing, 166
Hermes; named in Cooke MS,
108 ; and Pythagoras, 110 ;
who was he, 194
Herodotus: on Egypt, 10; re-
ferred to in Cooke MS, 107
Hiram Abif : 77 note ; not nam-
ed in Old Charges, 109; eso-
teric allusions to, 110; legend
of in France, 118 note; and
the Companionage, 149; and
the temple, 192
Hiram I, of Tyre: 75
History; Book of in China, 30;
like a mirage, 100; no older
than architecture, 241
Holme, Randle: 166
Horus: story of, 42; heroism of,
45

Hutchinson, William : on Ge-
ometry, 154 note; on Chris-
tianity and Masonry, 251 note ;
on Spirit of Masonry, 258

InKAXJSM : soul of Masonry, 269;
no dogma of in Masonry, 269
note; basis of, 270
Ikhnaton; city of, 12; poet and
idealist, 14

Immortality: faith in old, 39; in
Pyramid Texts, 40; allegory
of, 46; in the Mysteries, 49;
creed of Masonry, 134; held

3 ^^

THE BUILDERS

by Masons, 179; how Ma-
sonry teaches, 277
Instructions of a Parish Priest i
106

Invocations: Masonic, 108 note
Isis: story of, 42; and Osiris,
43; sorrow of, 4S; in Myster-
ies, 47

Jackson, Andrw; 228
Jesuits; and Masons, 210 note]
attempt to expose Masonryi
211

Kabbauh: muddle of, 67
Kabbalists: used Masonic sym-
bols, 156, 157

Kennedy, C. K: quoted, 238
Kiplinfe, Rudyard; 232
Krause: on Collegia, 79

of Solomon, 75; In Old
Charges, 111; of Pythagoras,
112; of Masonry unique, 128
Lessing, G E : quoted, 56 ; theory
of, 179 note ; a Mason, 232
Lethaby: on discovery of
Square, 10

Liberty: and law, 7; love of,
122; of thought, 178; civil and
Masonry, 224; in religion, 252;
of faith, 255; philosophy of,
271; Lowdl on, 272; of intel-
lect, 273; of soul, 274
Litchfield, Bishop of: 175
Locke, John: 232
Lodge: of Roman architects^ 82;

"of Comacines, 90; a school,
129; secrecy of, 132; enroute,
135; organization of, 136; de-
grees in, 146
Longfellow: quoted, 260
Lost Word: 67; Masonic search
of, 263

Lowell : on liberty, 272

Mack^, Dr; on Craft-masonry,
2S1 note] definition of Ma-
sonry, 240

Magnus, Albertus; 156
Man: the builder, 6; a poet, 19;
an idealist, 26; akin to God,
270; divinity of, 292; thoughts
of artists, 294; ideal of, 297
Markham, Edwin: quoted, 282
Marshall, John: 225
Martyrs, the Four Crowned : 86 ;
honored by Comacines, 90; in
Regius MS, 105
Masonry Dissected: 212
Masonry; foundations of, IS;
symbolism its soul, 18 ; in
China, 30; symbols of in obe-
lisk, 33; and the Mysteries^
S3; secret tradition in, 66; and
the Quest, 69; and Solomon’s
temple, 79; persecution of by
Diocletian, 35 ; and the Coma-
cines, 90; not new in Middle
Ages, 97; and tolerance, 100;
and the church, 102; antiquity
of emphasized, 110; legend of,
111; and Pythagoras, 112; in
England, 116; in Scotland,

INDKX

313

123 ; decline of, 124 ; moral
teaching of, 128-134; creed of,
134; degrees in, 142-4; not a
patch-work, 149 note*, an evo-
lution, ISO; defence of, 153;
symbols of in language, 155 ;
and Rosicrucianism, 164 note;
parable of, 173; transforma-
tion of, 176 ; and religion, 177 ;
theories about, 179 note*, de-
mocracy of, 183; more than a
trade, 185; mysticism of, 189
note*, and Hermetic teaching,
194; universal, 201 ; rapid
spread of, 204; early in Amer-
ica, 206; not a political party,
208; parody on, 209; attempt-
ed exposures of, 210-13 ;
growth of despite dissensions,
219-20; unsectarian, 221 note*,
in America, 223; and the War
of Revolution, 225; and Mor-
gan, 227-8; and Civil War, 228;
in literature, 232 note; dehxi-
ed, 23940; as friendship, 240;
best definition of, 241 ; de-
scription of, 242; has no se-
cret, 244; misunderstood, 245;
more than a church, 2S0 ;
crypt, 253 ; temple of, 260 ;
philosophy of, 262; and unity
of God, 273; its appeal, 283;
and friendship, 288; spirit of,
289; wisdom of, 295; ideal of,
297.

Masons : and Cotnacines, 90 ;
Hallam on, 96; denied their

due, 99 note; culture of, 100;
and Knights Templars, 101
note; first called free, 104;
persecuted, 122; technical se-
crets of, 147; customs of, 166
Masons* Company: 104; date of,
123; and Accepted Masons,
165

Mason's Marks: 131 note
Maspero : on Egyptian temples, 11
Master Mason; and Fellows,
128 note; oath of, 133; dress
of, 135

Masterpiece of Apprentice: 131
Master's Part : 148 ; in Third
Degree, 193

Materialism : and I^Iasonry, 268
Mazzini: 230
Mendus: 30

Merzaria, Giuseppe : on Coma-
cine Masters: 114
Metamorphoses, by Apuleius : 51
Montague, Duke of : elected
Grand Master, 185
Morgan, William; and Masonry,
227 ; excitement about, 292
note

Mysteries, The; origin of, 46;
nobility of, 47; teaching of,
48; spread of, 49; and St.
Paul, 50 ; corruption of, 51 ;
Plato on, 52; and Masonry,
53 ; temples of, 59 ; Moses
learned in, 76; and Hebrew
faith, 77; and Masonic ritual,
110; and the Third Degree,
196, 203

314 the BUIEDERS

Mystery-mongers i 60 ; fancies
of, 164

M^sUry of Masonry Discover^
ed: 210

Mysticism: 60 note; of Hermet-
ic8, 164; its real nature, 189
note

Muller, Max: quoted, 2S3; par-
able of, 292

Nathan the Wise: quoted, 56

Numbers : use of by Pythagoras,
48 note) and religious faith,
153; in nature, 1S4; and mys-
ticism, 159

Oath : in the Mysteries, 48 ; in
Harleiati MS, 126 ; of Ap-
prentice, 129; of Fellowcraft,
132; of Master Mason, 133

Obelisks: meaning of, 13; Ma-
sonic symbols in, 33

Occultism* GO note; and Ma-
sonry, 164

Old Charges: 102; number of,
103 ; the oldest of, 104 ; higher
criticism of, 107>9; value of,
111 ; and English Masonry,
116; moral teaching of, 128-
34; collated by Grand Lodge,
186

Oldest Mason honored; 181

Operative Masons; degrees of,
142 ; and speculative, 144 ;
lodges of, 148; and Wren,
167 note; still working, 201
note

evades: Cessation of, 28

Orient, Grand of France: not
atheistic, 261

Osiris: in trinity of Egypt, 23;
history of, 41; and Isis, 43;
death of, 44; resurrection of,
46; in Tyre, 76

Pain£, TnoiifAs; 225 note

Payne, George: Grand Master,
187

Philosophy : “blend of poetry,
science and religion,” 259; of
Masonry, 264-68; of faith,
270

Pike, Albert: on symbolism of
Masonry, 18; on Regius MS,
106; error of as to Guild-ma-
sonry, 158 note; on symbolism
before 1717, 159; on Third De-
gree, 193; on atheism, 261
note; on old men and Ma-
sonry, 296 note

Pillars: origin of, 28; meaning
of, 29; Isaac Walton on, 259
note

Plott, Dr; on Masonic customs,
166

Plutarch: on Square, 28; an in-
itiate, 42; and the Mysteries,
46; on Pythagoras symbol,
143

Pole Star; cult of, 24

Politics: and Masons, 179; for-
bidden in Lodges, 208; rela-
tion of Masonry to, 245, 248

Pompeii: collegium in, 83

INDEX

Popev Alexander : Moral Bssc^s
quoted, 210; a Mason, 263
Popes, ^e: and Masonry, 113,
122; bull of against Masonry,
211

Prayer; in Masonry, 179, 244
Preston, William: 1^; defeated,
218

“Protestant Jesuits” : Masons
called, 210 note

Pyramids; wonder of, 13; lone-
liness of, 28

Pyramid Texts: quoted, 40

Quiisv, ThiJ: aspects of, 65;
analysis of, 67; in Masonry, 69

WiNWOon; quoted, 172
Reconciliation, l#odge of: 221
Regius MS : oldest Masonic
MS, 104; synopsis of, 105;
Pike on, 106; Mason's points
in, 128; and Accepted Masons,
160

Religion: of light, 14; decline
of, 176; and Craft-tnasonry*
176; and Grand Lodge of
England, 250; what is it, 251
note ; in which all agree, 255 ;
of nature, 258; what wc prac-
tically believe, 293
Ritual : Old Charges part of.
128; growth, of, 142-4; evolu-
tion of, 219 note
Rome: secret orders in, 81; col-
lege of architects in, 86
Rosicrucians : use Masonic sym-

31S

bols, lS6i 157; and Ashmole,
163 ; distinct from Masons,
164; and De Quincey, 179
note; and Third Degree, 190
Royal Arch Masonry; 220 note
Ruskin, John; quoted, 7, 8; on
light, 14 note; on the church,
250

Sir. John's Day: 181; origin of,
183, note

Sayer, Anthony : first Grand
Master, 182
5chaw Statutes: 123
Sciences; the seven, 195; in
Cooke MS, 106

Scott, Leader: quoted, 72; on
Cathedral Builders, 87; on
Comacines and Masonry, 111
Scott, Sir Walter: on the word
cowan, 138 note ; a Mason,
232

Secrecy: of the Mysteries, 48;
of great teachers, 57; as to the
arts, 74; not real power of
Masonry, 212; reasons for,
243 note

Secret Doctrine; 57, objections
to, 59; open to all, 61 ; reasons
for, 63; what is it, 68
Secret Sermon an the Mounts 47
Sectarianism: Masonry against,
254

Seven L,amps of Architecture'.
quoted, 7

Shakespeare: 155; and Masons,
259 note

3i6

THE BUILDERS

Shelley; 14

Signs : in the Mysteries, 47 ;
Franklin on, 200; and charity,
244

Socrates : on unity of mind, 21 ;

and the Mysteries, 46
Solomon: and Hiram, 75; and
the Comacines, 89, in Cooke
MS, 109; sons of, 149
Solomon . Temple of, 75 ; style
of, 76; legends of, 77 note;
and Masonry, 79; influence of
on architecture, 191
Speculative Masonry: in Regius
MS, 106; growth of, 123;
meaning of, 144 note; Lodges
of, 148; before 1717, 167
Spenser, Hdmund : Masonic
symbols in, 155

Square: discovery of, 10; in
Pyramids, 13 ; eloquence of,
26; emblem of truth, 28; in
China, 30; in obelisk, 33;
throne of Osiris, 46; “square
men,“ 155; an ancient one,
159; of justice, 275
Staffordshire ; Natural History
of, quoted: 166

Steinmetzen, of Germany: 118
note; degree of, 145
Stones: sanctity of, 28
Stuckcly: Diary of, 203
Swastika : antiquity of, 23 ;
meaning of, 24; sign of Op-
erative Masons, 201 note
Symbolism: Carlyle on, 4; early
Masonic, 11; Pike on, 18;
ridbness of, 20; unity of, 21;

Mencius on, 30; in Bible, 31;
of Collegia, 93; of Comacines,
90; in Masonry, 143; of num-
bers, 154; in language, 1S5; in
Middle Ages, 156; preserved
by Masons, 159

Tayv)r, 175 note

Third Degree: legend of, 149;
confusion about, 189; purely
Masonic, 193; Pike on, 193;
not made but grew, 196; and
Ancient Mysteries, 196 ; Kd-
win Booth on, 197; and im-
mortality, 277

Tiler: 135; origin of name, 138
note

Tolstoi; 232

Tools of Masons: 26; old mean-
ings of, 29; in Bible, 32; kit
of, 132

Tradition: of Solomon, 75; of
Masonry unique, 128; of de-
grees, 144

Triangle ' probable meaning of,
13 note; used by Spenser, ISS

Trinity : idea of old, 22 ; in
Hgypt and India, 23 j not op-
posed to unity of God, 264
note

Unity: of human mind, 21; of
truth, 58 ; of God and Ma-
sonry, 176 note, 264

Universal Prayer x quoted, 263

Unsectarian : the genius of
Masonry, 221, 250, 252, 253,
258

INDEX

317

Waive, a. K: 38; tribute to, 64;
on the quest, 65; studies of?
66; “golden dustman/' 67

War: and Masonry, 225; Civil,
228, 229 note; cause of, 287;
end of, 202

Warren, Joseph: ardent Mason,
224

Washington, George; a Mason,
225; sworn into office by Ma-
son, 226

Watts, a F: 174

Webster, Daniel : on Green Tav-
ern, 224

Weed, Thurlow: and Masonry,
227 note; dirty trickster, 228

Wellington: a Mason, 232
Wesley, John: 175
Wharton, Duke of: traitor, 224
Wiltshire, Natural History of\
quoted, 166

Wren, Christopher; on columns,
9; and Masonry, 167 note; not
trained in a Lodge, 186

York: Bishop of, 113; Assembly
of, 117; old Grand Lodge of,
204; Mecca of Masonry, 205;
revival of Grand Lodge of,
215; no rite of, 216 note

Zoroasver : faith of, 22